Training Base Month 3

Here's my training for the next month.
Short and sweet post!

14 Mile Walk

This week is supposed to be consolodation, but it was such a nice day here I decided to do a longer walk. I planned a 12.5 Mile walk, but what with a few twists and turns and some little sidetracks to investigate landmarks it ended up being 14.

One of my sidetracks was to see the site of some castle remains. Unfortunately I couldn't find them. I can only have just missed them, but apparently there's not much to see anyway. A couple of walls and an excavated well.

I did a quick google to see what I missed : (It is on the bottom left of the map. You can see from the GPS how I took a detor north and then back again)

Heighley Castle and Heighley Castle Farm. The castle (only just visible, top centre (apparently?!?!)) was seat of the Lord Audley’s. It was begun by Henry de Audley in 1233. His descendant was the Lord Audley who was killed at the Battle of Blore Heath in 1459 during The Wars of the Roses. In 1644, a Parliamentary Committee in Stafford ordered its destruction to prevent it being garrisoned by Royalists (another version is that it was destroyed by the Royalist Audley family to prevent it falling into Parliamentary Roundhead hands!). It is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is on private land now owned by Lord O’Neill. Tradition has it that a Roman road connecting The Wrekin in Shropshire to Congleton in Chesire, ran past the castle. However, it is more likely to have been a pack horse trail, due to winding nature of the roads that now exist leading to and from this area. Heighley is Anglo-Saxon for High Lea, or a high clearing, and in the Doomsday Book, it had land for one plough and was held by Alward.

Anyway, enough of the local history lesson. That was the furthest i've ever walked. I was tired towards the end, but not spent. I'll take it easy tomorrow with a shorter run.

Bye for now.

10k trial run

I decided to do a 10K run today, at pace, to train for the Manchester Bupa 10K that i'm entered in during May.

A week or two ago I managed 5 miles, running at 8:09 minute mile average.

Today I did a fraction over 6 miles, a couple of hundred short of 10k but who's counting!?

Stats as follows:

Average Pace: 8:01
Average Speed: 7.4mpg
Event Distance: 6.06 miles
Average Heart Rate: 158
Event Time: 48:09

So, I was pretty happy with that. I had been aiming to do 8 minute mile pace for the race, and that proves that I am capable of it about a month before the run.

On the day, it may be a different story as there are a lot of runners. Not sure how many exactly but I'd have thought over 10,000. That being the case it's likely that i'll get held up at the start until the field spreads out.
Nevertheless I'll give it a shot. I'm running with my friend Dan. He's been doing his own training. He's about 6 years younger than me so I'm certain he'll keep pace quite happily.

I didn't run Yesterday as I had an early flight up to Edinburgh, then a trip to Motherwell, followed by Dundee before going back to the airport - all before 3:30pm!

Then my flight got cancelled with a technical problem. Moved to the 9:15pm flight, only for that to be delayed an hour. Got back to Nottingham EMA airport at 11:00, and was home by 11:45pm. Needless to say I didn't fancy a run after a 19 hour day...

Gym on Friday, then usual training this weekend.

Speak soon.

Good:
Hit my target time of 8 minute miles over 10K

Not so good:
Breathing a little ragged towards the end, harder to keep up my 3x3 rythym, had to move to 2x2.

How I could improve:
Do a weekly 10k pace run to ensure I don't lose speed before the run
Concentrate on breathing even when tiring.

10 miler and equipment tests

I did a 10 miler today. I've posted the route above. You can see there's a few nasty climbs in there. I also ran with my pack loaded up with about 2 Kilo's. 1.5 of that was Vitargo electrolyte which i'm trying out. I also tried out my camelback water pack in the Raidlight Sac Runner rucksack I've been using since January.

Very interesting all in all. I ran it a little faster than I should really, but I felt so good I couldn't resist. The first thing I noticed was that even just the extra 2 kilo's raised my heart rate at least 10 beats or so. So, there was never any chance that i'd keep it under 138. On the flat and downhill I kept it around 140, but on uphills it climbed as high as 160. I could have kept the average down had I have run a little slower but I didn't, so in the end I ended up with an average of 148. I felt fine, but that's a little high for what should have been my easy-long-slow run!

I still took it fairly easy though. I averaged just 5.8 mph, that's 10:15 minute miles. The total distance was 10.23 miles. 1:44:58 time to complete.

Onto the electrolyte and camelback. Interesting stuff. I've decided that despite the convenience and the specially made compartment in the rucksack, the camelback (seen here http://www.raidlight.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=70&ref=6SAC004&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=0&tri=0&marq=0) is just not suitable for the Marathon Des Sables.

Two reasons:
Firstly, it adds extra weight into the rucksack at the back. Given that the pack will already be about 10k, the last thing I need is more weight tugging on my shoulders.
Secondly, as you are running and drinking there's no way to tell how much water you have left in your camelback. That's very important for the MDS. You need to ration your water for the distance between checkpoints. Not too much, not too little. The rucksack's compartment does have a see-through sheet, but you have to take the rucksack off your back to see it!

So, i'll use them for some training to add weight into my pack, but as far as the MDS is concerned, they're out!

Sucessful though was the electrolyte. I tried out Vitargo after reading some good reviews. I bought a couple of sachets of the Carb-loader product (which I've not used yet), and a couple of sachets of the electrolyte. I tried the pink grapefruit flavour, which I read was easy on the stomach. I used it on my walk yesterday too. Despite a couple of early gurgles as I get used to taking in fluid as I run, my stomach was fine. I drained the lot (1200 mg's) by 8 miles. I made an effort to drink even and often, and when not yet thirsty. I felt good throughtout the run and not really tired at all, so I guess this stuff works.

I'm going to order a bucket of the electrolyte now. I found the cheapest place in the UK for it, here. http://www.wayside-kinetics.co.uk/index.php?cPath=1&osCsid=7369e2f61afb5ae85d6279946f81a4e5

Sure they'll appreciate the free plug. Everywhere else costs £10 more for the 2kg bucket!

Flying to Scotland and back on Tuesday for work. 5am start - 9pm home, no chance of Tuesday training!
Luck this week coming is consolodation, so I'm supposed to be taking it easy. Should manage Wednesday ok though. Speak to you soon!

So in summary, from this weeks sessions.

Good Stuff:
Vitargo Electrolyte.
Over the 10 mile mark again!
My Inov8 trail shoes are working out OK so far, on off-road routes.

Not so good:
Camelback - useless for MDS
Some left knee pain, more noticeable with weight added.
Few issues with GPS and PDA

How to improve:
Need to replace of the Saucony motion control road shoes I bought in November. I have orthotics now, so I need some neutral shoes for them, and I know I need more cushioning.
Check out power settings on PDA to ensure constant GPS lock.
Buy these water bottles to clip on the rucksack. They attach to the front straps of the rucksack, so they will counterbalance weight in the rucksack. It's also easy to see how full they are.
http://www.raidlight.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=68&ref=6SAC022&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=0&tri=0&marq=0

Long Walk

My first long walk in a couple of weeks, so I decided to do a fairly long one. I chose a 10 miles route, but probably ended up doing closer to 11, what with wandering around searching for footpaths now and again.

I've posted the route, I produced it using the memory-map (www.memory-map.co.uk) software I have. I download the map and route onto my PDA and use it with Bluetooth GPS to find my way and chart my progress. I have maps for much of the UK.

This route is not too far from me, I parked where I marked the green cicrle, the starting place being Hanchurch wooods, near Newcastle-under-Lyme.

It was very enjoyable, it took me about 3 hours in total. That included a couple of short stops to get a quick sandwich etc. You can see the elevation profile on the picture too. So I managed to work a few hills in there as well!

1 hour 40 minute run tomorrow... should be good!

Base Month 2 & MDS2006!

Well i'm two weeks into month 2 of my "Base" training. Most of it is still all fairly low intensity. Trying to keep the heart rate down to less than 137.

I've noticed that I appear to be becomming much more efficient. Whereas a few weeks ago I could only cover about 8 miles in 1 hour 40 minutes, whilst keeping my heart rate under 137. Last week I managed a 9 mile in 1 hour 25, my average heart rate being 138. So my body is definately adapting.

I've not done my usual long walk for the last 2 Saturdays because I have been digging and laying turf on my back garden. It's finally done! I've only lived here 18 months!! So I can get back on track with walking this coming Saturday.

I've also been working and staying away from home practically every day. This hasn't hit my training schedule at all, as I've still kept it up to the letter. Well, except for the swimming, I've not managed any of that.

I've posted my last 2 weeks and next 2 weeks schedule at the top of this post as you can see.

I have included a couple of pace runs in preparation for a 10k race in about a months time. I've averaged just over 8 minute miles for 5 miles, which is ok. I'll work on stretching that out to 6 miles at the same pace.

This years Marathon Des Sables is currently being run. I've been watching nightly updates on Eurosport 2 news, and also on the organisers website http://www.darbaroud.com/
Click the English/USA flag in the top right.

Looks like it's been hot, tough and humid with 68 people out by day 3. 21 People on iv's on stage 1 too...!

I've been following the progress of another UK blogger who entered this years event. I've been reading his training log and preparation and I've checked on his progress, wishing him all the best and hoping he'd crack it. Sadly, he posted a time for day. He is then shown as abandoned. He got injured just 10 K'ss in it turns out. How terrible. All that training to get hit by an injury. Must be gutting. However, he's going back for 2008, fair play to him.

There's been a record number of abandons this year, 146! The humidity has been unusually high, and this stops your sweat from evaporating as efficiently and cooling you. THere's also been a whipping wind, and Patrick Bauer also thought that not all of this years entrants were as well prepared as previous years. NOt sure what he meant by that though.

I wonder if entrants appreciate just how much walking they are likely to do. Only the superhuman will run the whole way. I'm fully expecting to walk large distances, even though I aim to be very fit indeed. Walking stresses your muscles and rubs your feet in different places, so if you have not walked a lot in training you will encounter a lot of difficulty, from the accounts I have read from past competitors.

I'll take all the advice onboard, and read the diaries from this years competitors over the next few weeks. Preparation is key, and those that have completed (or failed) are the best to advise. I still don't know how I'll react to the heat, but I'm planning on tryng to acclimitise as much as possible with a holiday just before the 2008 event, probably in Tenerife. I'll also run on every holiday between now and then, to get an idea of how tough it is, and how much fluid I need to take on to stay hydrated.

OK, that's it for now. Speak to you soon