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.