It's a Gnome, Galloping Horses, the Marathon that wasn't, and a look to Week11

The wife reckon I look like a Gnome with my beard, wearing my running gear, and with a rucksack on - charming...I will try and do a photo sometime so you can decide how Gnomish I am.....

In the early stages of my run on one of my farm routes I use, I realised that in the distance behind was two horses also following the same route, and the next thing I knew they were cantering towards me - cue, a challenge to see if I could get to the end of the route before they caught me - I did so but only just.  A polite family exchange ensued, and then they pressed on ahead of me, allowing to drop back to a more sedate run rate.

The number of daylight hours I had to get as many miles covered as possible before a much slower night run ensued to complete the marathon were halved, as I was not able to start the run until 8pm, rather than my more hoped for 6pm.  The result was 11 miles done in the two hours of daylight and dusk I had before I then lightened the load in my rucksack as I took out my hand torch, stuck on a mid-layer top, and put on a head torch - also had my granola square and a drink.
Some running was possible in the dark but it was more slower, and I ultimately I resorted to sticking to one field route of 1.5miles loops.
I did this until midnight by which time I had done 18 miles, and had another 5-ish laps to do but I was done - the thought of running round that loop for another 90 minutes nighttime or daylight was too much, and on race day there would be no loops, just new terrain step after step.
I may try to do the remaining 8 miles this evening, or I may just write it off.

Week 11 is a four day week, with two mid-week easy six miles being Wednesday and Thursday, followed by an eight mile on Saturday, and fifteen on Sunday - yep, it's a recovery week before the final push back to marathon distance two weeks after that.

Be curious, Be bonkers! (Change of plan)

This morning as planned, I drove to Whitlingham Broad and did my run before going to work and making use of the Executive showers (with power shower!).

Photos of Whitlingham are below but what I wanted to mention is I have realised my "need" to know where a path leads, revealed some areas of Whitlingham that I never knew had existed, and I've run this route many a time before, so if you have the time when you are running, and it is safe to do so, be curious as it may unlock a new route or an extension to an existing route.

As previously mentioned, this Sunday I am meant to be doing a marathon distance training session, which I had planned to involve fully covering the Reedham to Great Yarmouth Wherryman's Way route.

However, Thursday evening I found out this would not be possible as the wife is out both Saturday and Sunday during the day - solution........do the marathon Saturday evening through to the early hours of Sunday - yep,  my first night time run, to test out my head torch and my ability to cope with the dark.

I do not plan to bring more than two to three miles from the house with an aim to run from 7pm to 10pm when it will turn dark, and then brisk walking to complete the outstanding mileage - expectation is to complete it between 1am and 2am - I will let you know on Sunday how it went, after I have had a decent sleep of course.

Broke the schedule, Half-Term impact, and Back to basics

This morning I was meant to be doing an easy effort six miler, final one in this week's three day consecutive mid-week six mile runs, but a combination of not being able to get to bed early this week and the effort applied in yesterday's run, has left me wiped out today.
It sounds quite negative but this week's schedule has no Saturday run, so I am bumping today's run to tomorrow where as I am back at work for the final day of the week, I plan to get up at 5am-ish as normal, and drive to work car park for when it opens at 6am, and then (already in my running gear) I will do an easy run down to Whitlingham Broad and back - I will still have Saturday to recover and ready myself for the marathon distance on Sunday.

Half-term has meant the usual bedtime routine for my daughter goes out of the window, and I am then not getting enough sleep - I happily slept through to 8.30am today, and I will deliberately do the same on Saturday.

I also think another reason for the lethargy is the recent allowing myself to snack on very unhealthy foods - I do need to eat enough calories but I also need to make sure they are good calories.
Given the distances being run on Sundays, I will break this rule as we should all have a reward but again there should be a focus on good or good-ish calories.

The sub 60 10k, hungry, winning the 100k Steps Garmin Challenge, and Podcast

Today was a medium effort 6 miler so following last week's speedy 5 miler I thought I should have a crack at getting under 60 minutes for an off-road 10k.

The route was tougher in terms of terrain than last week, an out and back rather than being circular, but my downfall was my shoe laces coming undone twice, despite them being tight - I suspect they got caught in the undergrowth, and as a result I did it in 1hr and 33 seconds - close but no cigar.

There will be other weeks to have another crack at it.

Every week, as I've signed up for it, I am entered with up to 13 other signed up Garmin users to achieve a weekly steps target - beat it, and you go up to a higher target group but in addition one of the fourteen will finish top of the leaderboard.

I am at the 100k steps per week, and this week I finished first in my group with a total of 117k, which is now my second win, the being at a lower target.

There are no prizes other than badges but it's another hook to keep me going.

Yesterday, I was not that hungry and came in 500 calories under target - today, particularly mid afternoon, I was permanently hungry!  As I've stated before, I will not starve myself, so 200 calories over but not an issue given yesterday's gap.

If you ever read the Brownlee's book, Swim Bike Run, they mention that when training they always hungry, so it must be the extra effort this morning.

The link below is to an extract from a podcast (Marathon Talk) where Vassos from Chris Evans Breakfast Show is interviewed about doing the Race to the Stones this year, which might be of interest.

https://www.facebook.com/RaceToTheStones/videos/vb.272293052894094/670481873075208/?type=2&theater

My Approach To Training For My First Ultra

One of my work colleagues was enquiring about my whole approach to training for the Ultra, not just about my running but my recording of food eaten on MyFitnessPal, so I thought I should share my answer in case it is of interest to anyone else.

In terms of my four to five runs a week I do them first thing in the morning typically starting at about 5.30am to 6.30am, and I do them having not eaten anything, known as a fasted run.

The reason I do this is based on forcing my body to learn how to burn it's carbs and fat stores more efficiently, so on race day when I do fuel up pre-race, and depending on distance top up at regular intervals, it learns to make the efficient use of the fuel I provide - that's the theory and based on the recent Sunday long runs, I am mastering the ability to keep sufficiently topped up so I do bonk late in the run.

The exercise aspect is only one part of my approach, with the other being how much and what I eat each day, and for that I use MyFitnessPal to help keep me on the straight and narrow.

A typical mid-week running day, I allow 1800 calories plus the calories earned from the run, which seems to be about 700 to 900 calories.

When I get back from my run, I have a cup of milk then a large bowl of cereal, typically muesli but currently Shreddies (as they need using them up) with a similar amount of milk = 500 calories.

Lunch will be soup and roll, salad with cheese or some meat, or last night's dinner leftovers, so anything from 400 to 600 calories.

During the day, snacks will be mainly fruit based, such as banana, apple(s), pear, orange etc plus breakfast bar style food = upwards to 500 calories.

Dinner will be about 800 calories.

Total = 500 + 600 + 500 + 800 = 2400 calories based on the maximums.  Given my "allowance" is 1800 + 700 = 2500, then it is all about right, and typically I will be 200 to 300 calories each of these days.

I eat less on non-running days with Monday being an exception as the Sunday long run makes me very hungry the following day, so I tend to merge Sunday and Monday together.

I hope this makes sense.

Week 9 completed, looking good, time pressured 20 miler, the backpack, and a look ahead to the dreaded Week 10

Week 9 I did five runs that added up to 41 miles (20 done today), and it is becoming clear that whilst I have no scope to do much more, particularly mid week, it is actually (surprisingly) very manageable.

There is a another benefit to all this running in that in the last eight weeks, I have lost 10lbs in weight and now need to lose another 3.5 lbs to set a new lowest weight - I have been recording my weight on and off for the last four and half years when at that point I had hit a whopping 16st (224lbs).  My present weight is 12st 10.25lbs (178.25lbs) and the current lowest record is 13st 7lbs (175lbs).
Anyhow, I am getting a lot of comment about I look slimmer these days - my missus reckons I am vanishing up my own backside..... - and to finish this section I have two "aspirational" shirts ironed and hanging up, waiting for me to fit into them, and I hope after Race to the Stones, I will fit into them for work.

Now today's 20 mile run became a little more time pressured than I had originally planned when I overslept by one hour and I had a deadline to be home by.  As a result today's run was more like a training session for a marathon rather than a run-but-take-time-to-enjoy-the-views-ultra.
As with all runs to date, it is a fasted run and I comfortably did the first ten miles around various farm fields, and facing the quarter-mile nettles of doom along the river like last week's long run, before then taking on water and to start with jelly babies.  At mile 12, another batch of jelly babies and water, then at mile 14 a large banana and water, mile 16 was a breakfast bar, mile 18 more jelly babies.  At no point was I feeling like I was out of energy, so nutritionally I had nailed it.
One thing I did do to help with breaking down the 20 miles was I noticed I was doing just about 48 minutes after four miles and quickly calculated that if I could keep to an overall rate of four miles every 50 minutes (12.5 minutes per mile) I would get the run done on time.   This was useful as I could add up batches of 50 minutes in my head and along with your subconscious being in full flow it kept the brain active working out if I was meeting this target. In the end I did it with a few minutes to spare at a rate of 12 minutes 20 seconds per mile.
Apologies, no photos due to this - will try to take some mid-week as I found a nice area that has a lot of environmentally friendly areas for wildlife just outside of Reedham.

That 20 miler was with a full backpack (with two full bottles of water as well), and out of interest I thought I should weigh the bag to work out how much weight I was carrying for the whole run - total weight was 7.5lbs, or just over half a stone.
I do need to start packing it with the stuff I will have on race day rather just stuffing it with lots of clothing - time to look at what I need on race day (will blog another time).

Finally a look ahead to the dreaded Week 10 - 3x6 miles (Tuesday to Thursday) and my only day off on a Saturday but Sunday is 26.2 miles, yes a full marathon.  Total mileage will be 44 miles.

Week 9 - Mid week runs completed - Running like Gwen

Tuesday's five mile run was easy effort and was done fine.

Wednesday's five mile was medium effort, and I flew like the wind - the first two miles were just over 10 minutes a mile but then I did 9.46, 9.28, and for the final mile 8.48 minutes a mile.  I just kept slowly upping the pace visioning I was running like Gwen Jorgensen, the seemingly unstoppable women's Triathlete who is dominating the World Series Triathlon this year.
And the pace felt comfortable!

Thursday I think I paid the price for Wednesday's run, and the five miles I struggled with both physically and mentally - I just could not push the pace and all the miles were around ten minute a mile.

Saturday will be a comfortable six mile run and Sunday is my 20 mile unstructured run around all the local fields.  Plus point is that I will be close to home for all of it.


Gwen Jorgensen who no doubt could walk faster than I could run but was my inspiration on Wednesday's speedy run.

Week 9 - the start of the six week onslaught

With the Week 8 recovery week completed, I have looked ahead to what the training schedule is for the final eight weeks, and if we ignore the final two weeks, there is a lot of consistency to the the schedule except for the long run....

In short, Tuesday to Thursday will consist of two to consecutive three runs of five to six miles each, mainly easy effort but some medium as well.

Saturday is six to eight miles easy effort except for Week 10 where I get the day off.

Sunday is the long run, and the distances will be 20, 26, 15, 20, 26, and 15 miles.

This week is 3x5 (today was easy effort but next two are medium effort), 1x6, and 1x20.

I have yet to decide on my 20 mile route as I do not want it to be the completion of Reedham to Great Yarmouth Wherryman's route - I will save that for the marathon run the weekend after - so instead the route may well end up being an amalgam of all the neighbouring fields I have been using for the mid week runs.

The long run could be kicking off early on Sunday to allow enough time to do it before the wife has to leave the house - possibly a 4.30am start.....

9 mile Sunday Run, time to use sun cream, and being more practical about healthy eating

Today I took a leisurely run from home to Limpenhoe to Cantley, then along river to Reedham before returning home - just over 9 miles.

This weekend I truly mastered the the art of running slow enough for it not to be classed as an easy run, the sort of pace where you could just keep on going.

One mistake was not to put any sun protection on, so I now have the "caught the sun" look this evening - time to apply it each run from now on, unless of course it is bucketing it down.

With my weight unsurprisingly continuing to drop at the rate of about 1lb a week, one of the causes is the calorie gap caused by all the running - today I burned about 1200 calories - and this is creating upwards of 1000 calorie deficit, particularly on Sunday long run days.

So yesterday I had a chocolate Rice Krispie cake (150cal) that I made to use up some Rice Krispies that no one was eating, and today I had two plus a small choc ice!  Despite a hearty dinner, I am still below my calories but the gap will at least be smaller.

Photos of long run below;

Fields at the start of the run

Pubic footpath that diagonally cuts across three different fields before you then one more field away from Limpenhoe

Reedcutter Inn pub (Cantley) at the start of the route along the river to Reedham

The first bit passes the Sugar Factory in Cantley

A quarter of a mile of uncut path involving a lot of stinging nettles - a definite don't think about it, just run through as fast as possible and man-up when the stings kick in....

Derelict windmill with a working one in the distance

Reeds that have cut and left to dry.

Reedham Ferry Inn

Converted windmill into a "house" aka Jonathan Creek

End of the river route for me as I then turn into Reedham before heading home.

Muddy soggy socks = Re-doing the washing......oops, Week 8, and achievements

At the weekend, the two lots of washing when washed came out with greyish marks on them, and inspection of the washing machine drum, these marks could also be found on the inside of the drum.

My theory is that my very muddy socks must be the cause, so from now on I am going to need to hand-wash them first to get rid of any excess mud, before the missus works out what cause of the marks was....

I am half way through Week 8, and this morning was the second consecutive medium effort five run.  Medium effort for me seems to be in the 10 minute to 10.20 per mile range, whereas easy effort is more 11 to 11.30 range.

Today's was slower than yesterday as the legs were not as fresh, it was colder, and the route was more gnarlier.

Given Week 8 is a recovery week, I have just a six-miler on Saturday, and a nine-miler on Sunday.

I am thinking that for the Sunday I shall do the route along river from Reedham to Cantley and back - pub to pub - it is a route I have run in past years, and is a favourite of mine but it will be the first time this year.

Following the training schedule with no missed runs so far is a major achievement for me, especially as the midweek runs require a 5.30am start, and whilst I have done three marathons in the past, I only ever properly trained for the first one.

Apart from the obvious payoff on race day, my weight has dropped below 13st for the first time in 18 months, and I would not be surprised if it goes below 12 and a half stone by July, which would be a first in a very very long time.

The Backpack and the Long Run

On six day I had a few challenges with backpack for the first few miles, where it would not keep still and as a result one of the straps was rubbing my right shoulder.

I tried to adjust the straps as I was running but any tightening would loosen due to the movement of the backpack, so in the end I stopped and took the backpack off to investigate.

The problem was that all the clothing (triple bagged) I had stuffed in there and it had created a lump at the bottom of the backpack - the solution, and for me to remember for July is to smooth everything down so it maximises to be vertically flat with my back.

The getting lost event the week before, and backpack issues this time are all part of learning so I am ready for the 100km race.

Long run done - Berney Arms Train Station found this week

Since I planned my long-run route this week, I did not get lost.

The weather was cool, breezy the closer I got to Great Yarmouth, but rain free.

There were some technical issues early on, as I could not get my full rucksack to sit comfortably without too much movement.  With some changes I got it fit snugly, which will be important on race day.

19 miles done, which is one mile more than planned.

FOUND IT!

Berney Arms Pub found as well

Lizzy Hawker - Runner, book

This is a very interesting book that essentially falls into three chapters;

1) her background and the races she has entered and in a lot of cases, been the women's winner, particularly her five UTMB successes.

2) her love of Nepal, especially poignant given the recent devastating earthquake there.

3) coping with successive stress fracture injuries and your own inner demons.

It is a very refreshing read that does not have a single training plan, or guide to how to eat and drink as a runner, but I would almost say it is an indirect guide to being a more In-tune, enriched better person.

Lizzy has a rich life of experiences instead of needing stuff, and an absolute oneness with herself and the Nepalese when in Nepal, hence she spends as much time there as she can.

At 274 pages it is a relaxed read, but like me you might find the third section which about her accepting the realities of facing oneself when you are unable to run, will worm their way into your subconscious and start to ask questions of yourself, which can never be a bad thing.

I would recommend this book as one to either buy or get from your library (if like mine) they stock it.

I have intentionally not gone into detail as tapestry of the her life so far is cleverly weaved in way that in my opinion should be read in full and not be summarised beyond the three sections above.

UK General Election - Hang on, I thought this was a running blog?

Whilst I am very interested (but not active) in UK politics, I keep politics out of my blog but I mention this time purely in that as part of that strong interest, I stayed up all night to watch it.

This means having got up at 5.30am yesterday and done close to six miles for the third day in a row (as per the training plan I have stuck to), I went to work during the day and then stayed up until I went to bed at 8.30am this morning - 27 hours after I got up.

It was an unusual pre-test of whether I could stay up without falling asleep given I am likely to be awake for upwards of 20hours on race day, and in fact I did not feel that tired during the proceedings.

So there is my tenuous non-political link to the UK General Election, and as much I might be tempted to do a political blog, I only just about have time to write this blog three to four times a week as it is.

Healthy eating failed on a big scale during the all-nighter, and a lot of crap was eaten - I have yet to tally up the calorific impact but I suspect it is not bad, but these will not be good calories for certain.

Soggy shoes = soggy feet

Despite having almost 48 hours to dry out, my trail running shoes were still wet from Sunday's rainy 'how to get lost in the marshes' run, so for my 5.15am 6 mile, I started with socks and feet being wet from the outset, and they got wetter still as it had been raining, so all the long grass was very wet.

I suspect the wet shoes may be an issue for a few weeks until the ground dries up as we get closer to summer - given it could get very wet on race day in July, there is no harm learning to manage running with soggy feet.

As well as my early morning six mile run, later on in the morning I am going to have an over 40s well person check up at my Doctors - cue a number of prostate check jokes at work today.

Whilst all my work colleagues think I am mad doing this 100km race, one of them strongly suggested I should get a check-up, just to make sure there are no underlying health issues, especially as I have had cancer (of the bladder) twice in the last 11 years, although thankfully I have been in the clear for the last five to six years.

Week 7 starts tomorrow

So putting aside Sunday's getting lost in the marshes, Week 6 was a success as all training was done, and I was managing what I eat - I am slightly off the wagon today as I've had four small sausage rolls (homemade) which is a knock-on from the 2000 spare calories I didn't consume yesterday.

Week 7 starts tomorrow with three days of six miles each, I will be getting up at 5am each day on those three days.
Saturday is 8 miles and Sunday is 18 miles.

I will weigh myself tonight just out of curiosity.

Today will be a low activity day as with about four hours to go, I will be lucky to reach 4000 steps but given 35,000 were done yesterday, it doesn't matter.  I have been active sorting the back bedroom out, cue lots of lugging stuff about in the hope it will look a bit tidier.....

A long run in the marshes along part of the Wherryman's Way - What could possibly go wrong?

With a 15 mile run to be done, in an unplanned manner I found the Wherryman's route whilst exploring the nooks and crannies of Reedham Village, so I thought why not and promptly headed out along the marshes following the route towards Great Yarmouth with an aim of getting to the Berney Arms train station, before then finding why way back to civilisation - as you see from my photos below I never found it despite being very near to it according to sign post.

 

It rained for most of the run, and in not finding the train station I continued onwards getting more and more lost with low cloud reducing visibility across the marshes, to a point I found myself in the most unexpected of places, the A47 on what is known as the Acle Straight, and is a very busy road with no grass verge and ditches one side, and thankfully a wide grass verge on the other side - still I would be running along this for at two miles being hit in the face by spray from 60mph lorries - nice not.

To add to matters the charge on my phone had gone but thankfully a caravan was in the lay by and helped me by allowing me to borrow their phone to contact family as I was close to an hour late, and request to be "rescued" at a closed restaurant / pub that was formerly known as the Stracey Arms.

I am knackered but a plus point was wearing the backpack for the duration, and because I had bagged everything inside it in plastic shopping bags, nothing got wet, other than me.......

Sticking to the plan and linking Garmin to My Fitness Plan

So with this being the first week of the Ultra training (week six in terms of the schedule) I have managed to get up at 5.30am three days in a row midweek running five miles each day, enjoyed my lie-in to 6.45am yesterday, and despite oversleeping this morning I managed to do 5.5 miles - not quite six miles but close enough.

Tomorrow I will do 15 miles and it is likely to a wet one according to weather forecast.

I have now linked the My Fitness Plan to my Garmin Connect, and now the fitness is done via Garmin, and my food record is done by My Fitness Plan - the two exchange information, so both have the knowledge and enable me to understand whether I am on track.

So far I have managed to keep my calorie consumption below my allowance each day, and there is no unhealthy snacking.

Each five mile run creates an extra 800 calories I can have on each of those days taking my allowance from 1800 to 2600 but I wonder how valid these extra calories are I.e. If I consume 2300 calories, have I really saved 300 calories or am I 500 calories over?