If you’ve read my blog before, you will know that the Lake District has a special place in my heart and I try to get up there as much as possible (but never enough). We had this holiday booked before Christmas and it was supposed to be a nice relaxing walking holiday….well, things change and one must adapt!
Annie finally committed to running the Lakeland 50 a week or so before so we decided to turn the “nice relaxing holiday” into a “nice relaxing recce of the Lakeland 50”. Plus we were staying in Ambleside, which is pretty ideal for running the sections of the Lakeland 50 between Dalemain and Coniston. The first day we drove straight up to Dalemain to run an out and back from Dalemain. Turned out to be a very nice day and it was good to enjoy the route with fresh legs and an energetic mind! Last year, this section was just after halfway of the race and as you can imagine my mind and body was pretty much exhausted back then so much of this section was a bit of a blur! A couple of hours later and we’re back in the car and heading for Ambleside.
In my normal day to day life I keep to a pretty strict diet. When I say diet, I don’t mean I watch how many calories or fat I consume. I simply follow what I call a natural balanced diet of oats, fruits, nuts, seeds, grains, diary, honey etc. I also gave up meat and fish about six months ago so now eat extra veg and a bit of soy based proteins now and again. When I’m on holiday I’m a bit more relaxed and eat homemade cakes and a “few” local ales. If you’re ever in Ambleside I implore you to visit Bilbo’s Café for some really good quality coffee, cakes and some ‘proper’ grub and a visit to the Golden Rule for a couple of nice ale’s in the evening shouldn’t go amiss. Bilbo’s Café is also situated above Lakes Runner so you get an excuse to buy some new running gear! We visited the café at least twice a day, once in the morning for some strong coffee and then after our run to consume some more coffee and a cake! John, the proprietor is also a keen runner and has entered the Lakeland 100 this year so we hooked up midweek to run from the café to Coniston. Turned out to be a fun run! Climbing out of Tilberthwaite towards Coniston we came to a beck that caused us to stop and think. The path had followed the
beck on our right for a while but then I noticed near the top that there was a path on the other side. I thought I recognised the path from last year but it didn’t look right on the map so we continued with the beck to the right. After running through some bog and hopping from one trod to the other we soon realised we had taken to wrong path. We looked at the map again and realised we had identified the wrong beck previously but we could see another path we could take to bring us into Coniston. So after running through some more bog and sheep carcass we got to the path which turned out to be vertical scree down the side of the fell. If you haven’t run scree before, give it ago! It’s bloody scary as hell but truly exhilarating! A couple of days later and I run the route again but take the correct route this time!
Some words of advice for anyone who is running the Lakeland this year:
1. Reece as much of the route as you can.
2. Make sure you know how to read a map.
3. If you can’t do 1 make bloody sure you can do 2.
All in all, it was a very good week. I managed to run just over 100 'easy' miles, eat a lot of cakes, drink far too much coffee and enjoy the odd pint or two!
Monday, 31 January 2011
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Country to Capital 45 mile and Rough n’ Tumble 10 mile
Here I am again with a double race report. This time it’s not because I’ve taken so long to do a write up…it’s simply because they were both on the same weekend.
Now…it’s been a couple of months since my last race. This isn’t through lack of trying. I had an ultra in the Gower, Wales in November, but driving down on the Friday night I broke down in the middle of nowhere! Unfortunately, the only option I had at the time was to get recovery to take me back home. Out of frustration, I booked another ultra for December. This was to be in the Brecon’s, Wales again, and looked like a pretty good challenge. Again the gods were against me and relentless snow and icy conditions prevented me from even attempting to get to the start! These disappointments lead me to entering Go Beyond Ultra’s Country to Capital Ultra 45 mile race. I noticed the race a while back, but the course is very flat and ends with a 20 mile section of canal. If I made a list of my favourite terrains to run on, road would be at the very bottom and canal paths would be just above it. I just don’t enjoy running on flat surfaces, simple as that really. But, it’s a good opportunity to work on speed so I entered anyway.
Country to Capital, 45 miles, 15/Jan/2011
Like any running geek, I’ve checked past results and they’re pretty damn fast. Last years winner Craig Stewart finished in 5:30:37, an average of around 7:20 min/mile pace. I wasn’t sure if I could match that pace, but planned to go out at 7 min/mile pace and see how I went from there. I also decide to try a different nutritional strategy for this event. I wanted to see how I would do using energy gels and simply water. I’ve got hold of some GU Gels that are pretty big in the US, the gel of choice for a lot of top athletes and have just recently arrived in the UK. They are also very easy and simple to use. Each pack contains 100 calories and 20 grams of carbs. The train of thought at the moment coming from sports nutritionists is that we can only absorb 300 calories per hour and 60 grams of carbs per hour. This is just an average and depends greatly on the person and the intensity of the effort. I expected that I would be at the higher end of the effort scale so planned to knock back one gel every 30 minutes followed by a glug of water.
The race kicks off at 8:30am and around 115 runners head out of the pub car park in Wendover, Buckinghamshire towards the finish at Little Venice, London. I get straight into a 7 min/mile effort at the front and after about half a mile there’s about 5 of us in a breakaway pack. I’m soon enough running alongside last year’s winner and winner of Devil O’ the Highlands, Craig. We exchange a few words; he’s here on a training run to get miles in for a race he’s got planned coming up in July. I’m here to see what happens. It becomes pretty apparent that we’re running at a similar pace and we get into a good grove. There’s another guy determined to stay with us, but by the sound of his breathing, he’s going to find it hard to keep pace with us. Behind him, there’s another two guys a little further back.
The first half of the course runs through Chiltern countryside and after a recent deluge of rain the ground is pretty muddy and sticky and you could really feel it in your legs. The first two legs go pretty smoothly, navigation is spot on due to Craig’s experience and we’re both running very comfortably. During this time I had a brief chat with the guy in third who turns out to be a Sam O’Shea. This was his first ultra with only one previous marathon (same story as me) under his belt. He had been doing well to keep up with us but we lost him sometime after the second checkpoint.
We were now running towards Denham, Craig slowly pulling away from me.
Going through Denham village I lost sight of Craig and got a little disorientated but then found the correct road which lead to a golf course. The path I was following through the golf course momentarily disappeared and I had to stop and ask a couple of people the direction to the Grand Union Canal. I eventually got onto the canal so no need for the map anymore…navigation should be easy so in the bin it goes. My nutritional strategy had been going well, knocking back a GU Gel every half hour but I had found it difficult to drink enough fluid. I was also getting a but sick of the flavour after 4 hours but I know how important it is to look after the nutritional side of things so I forced the gels down and made sure I was drinking enough fluid. About mile 32 I was struck by the dreaded cramp! My right hamstring locked into a spasm of pain that brought me to an instant stand still. I took a minute to massage the muscle I was able to run again. I hadn’t taken on enough fluid earlier in the race to digest the gels, so at the next checkpoint I knocked back an extra bottle of water and carried two with me. My hamstring would tighten up now and again but as soon as I thought it might cramp I stopped and gave it a quick massage. This helped a lot although the stop start running was pretty annoying and prevented me from getting into a good rhythm.
I hadn’t seen Craig since Denham so I guessed he must have been flying along the canal. I crossed the line at Little Venice in 5:23:50, under the previous course record but still only 2nd place! I look around and find Craig who finished in a blistering 4:56:10! A fantastic run from Craig. Guy from GoBeyond worked out that he must have been running close to 5:30 min/mile pace along the canal section. I was pretty happy with my time, running at an average pace of 7:12 min/miles. I think if I trained more on flat surfaces I could improve quite a lot, but it doesn’t really interest me that much.
Pint of milk, a cereal bar, some water and a quick wash and change and I was off to the train station back to Wendover. Happy days…
Nearly forgot to mention...I wore a pair of New Balance MT101's which I zero flatted myself with a knife. I'll do a quick review another time.
Rough n’ Tumble, 10 miles, 16/Jan/2011
Although I consider myself an ultra runner, some short races I will always try and take part in, primarily down to sentimentality and because I really enjoy the race. Top of the list is Terminator 11, the first ever race I entered just over 4 years ago. The second is the Rough n’ Tumble…a fabulous x-country course in the Wiltshire countryside, with a couple of meaty climbs and some fantastic post race cakes! The race organiser, Steve Goulding is also a really nice guy and a pretty good runner in his own right. My partner, Annie is also taking part in this race and has a good chance of winning it. My only aim of the day is to get around the course and shake out the legs.
Close to 500 runners set of at 11am to enjoy a fantastic jolly through Wiltshire. My legs are pretty zapped and I’m running alongside Annie. We’re going pretty much the same pace and I ask if it’s okay if I try to run with her. We then hit the first climb and I’m so happy to be hitting a hill after yesterday’s flatness that I fly up it and start to really enjoy myself. I somehow manage to maintain a pretty descent effort around the whole of the course and actually achieve a course PB in 1:13:15. I have a quick chat with Steve, knock back a couple of jelly sweets look around and Annie comes storming into the finish to break the female course record in 1:15:28! Not bad for someone who has just come back from an Achilles injury and is going through the transition to barefoot and minimalist running. Annie really has the potential to do great things in Ultra’s and I look forward to being part of her journey.
Post race…3 cakes…a hummus pitta! Yum yum.
Now…it’s been a couple of months since my last race. This isn’t through lack of trying. I had an ultra in the Gower, Wales in November, but driving down on the Friday night I broke down in the middle of nowhere! Unfortunately, the only option I had at the time was to get recovery to take me back home. Out of frustration, I booked another ultra for December. This was to be in the Brecon’s, Wales again, and looked like a pretty good challenge. Again the gods were against me and relentless snow and icy conditions prevented me from even attempting to get to the start! These disappointments lead me to entering Go Beyond Ultra’s Country to Capital Ultra 45 mile race. I noticed the race a while back, but the course is very flat and ends with a 20 mile section of canal. If I made a list of my favourite terrains to run on, road would be at the very bottom and canal paths would be just above it. I just don’t enjoy running on flat surfaces, simple as that really. But, it’s a good opportunity to work on speed so I entered anyway.
Country to Capital, 45 miles, 15/Jan/2011
Like any running geek, I’ve checked past results and they’re pretty damn fast. Last years winner Craig Stewart finished in 5:30:37, an average of around 7:20 min/mile pace. I wasn’t sure if I could match that pace, but planned to go out at 7 min/mile pace and see how I went from there. I also decide to try a different nutritional strategy for this event. I wanted to see how I would do using energy gels and simply water. I’ve got hold of some GU Gels that are pretty big in the US, the gel of choice for a lot of top athletes and have just recently arrived in the UK. They are also very easy and simple to use. Each pack contains 100 calories and 20 grams of carbs. The train of thought at the moment coming from sports nutritionists is that we can only absorb 300 calories per hour and 60 grams of carbs per hour. This is just an average and depends greatly on the person and the intensity of the effort. I expected that I would be at the higher end of the effort scale so planned to knock back one gel every 30 minutes followed by a glug of water.
The race kicks off at 8:30am and around 115 runners head out of the pub car park in Wendover, Buckinghamshire towards the finish at Little Venice, London. I get straight into a 7 min/mile effort at the front and after about half a mile there’s about 5 of us in a breakaway pack. I’m soon enough running alongside last year’s winner and winner of Devil O’ the Highlands, Craig. We exchange a few words; he’s here on a training run to get miles in for a race he’s got planned coming up in July. I’m here to see what happens. It becomes pretty apparent that we’re running at a similar pace and we get into a good grove. There’s another guy determined to stay with us, but by the sound of his breathing, he’s going to find it hard to keep pace with us. Behind him, there’s another two guys a little further back.
The first half of the course runs through Chiltern countryside and after a recent deluge of rain the ground is pretty muddy and sticky and you could really feel it in your legs. The first two legs go pretty smoothly, navigation is spot on due to Craig’s experience and we’re both running very comfortably. During this time I had a brief chat with the guy in third who turns out to be a Sam O’Shea. This was his first ultra with only one previous marathon (same story as me) under his belt. He had been doing well to keep up with us but we lost him sometime after the second checkpoint.
We were now running towards Denham, Craig slowly pulling away from me.
Going through Denham village I lost sight of Craig and got a little disorientated but then found the correct road which lead to a golf course. The path I was following through the golf course momentarily disappeared and I had to stop and ask a couple of people the direction to the Grand Union Canal. I eventually got onto the canal so no need for the map anymore…navigation should be easy so in the bin it goes. My nutritional strategy had been going well, knocking back a GU Gel every half hour but I had found it difficult to drink enough fluid. I was also getting a but sick of the flavour after 4 hours but I know how important it is to look after the nutritional side of things so I forced the gels down and made sure I was drinking enough fluid. About mile 32 I was struck by the dreaded cramp! My right hamstring locked into a spasm of pain that brought me to an instant stand still. I took a minute to massage the muscle I was able to run again. I hadn’t taken on enough fluid earlier in the race to digest the gels, so at the next checkpoint I knocked back an extra bottle of water and carried two with me. My hamstring would tighten up now and again but as soon as I thought it might cramp I stopped and gave it a quick massage. This helped a lot although the stop start running was pretty annoying and prevented me from getting into a good rhythm.
I hadn’t seen Craig since Denham so I guessed he must have been flying along the canal. I crossed the line at Little Venice in 5:23:50, under the previous course record but still only 2nd place! I look around and find Craig who finished in a blistering 4:56:10! A fantastic run from Craig. Guy from GoBeyond worked out that he must have been running close to 5:30 min/mile pace along the canal section. I was pretty happy with my time, running at an average pace of 7:12 min/miles. I think if I trained more on flat surfaces I could improve quite a lot, but it doesn’t really interest me that much.
Pint of milk, a cereal bar, some water and a quick wash and change and I was off to the train station back to Wendover. Happy days…
Nearly forgot to mention...I wore a pair of New Balance MT101's which I zero flatted myself with a knife. I'll do a quick review another time.
Rough n’ Tumble, 10 miles, 16/Jan/2011
Although I consider myself an ultra runner, some short races I will always try and take part in, primarily down to sentimentality and because I really enjoy the race. Top of the list is Terminator 11, the first ever race I entered just over 4 years ago. The second is the Rough n’ Tumble…a fabulous x-country course in the Wiltshire countryside, with a couple of meaty climbs and some fantastic post race cakes! The race organiser, Steve Goulding is also a really nice guy and a pretty good runner in his own right. My partner, Annie is also taking part in this race and has a good chance of winning it. My only aim of the day is to get around the course and shake out the legs.
Close to 500 runners set of at 11am to enjoy a fantastic jolly through Wiltshire. My legs are pretty zapped and I’m running alongside Annie. We’re going pretty much the same pace and I ask if it’s okay if I try to run with her. We then hit the first climb and I’m so happy to be hitting a hill after yesterday’s flatness that I fly up it and start to really enjoy myself. I somehow manage to maintain a pretty descent effort around the whole of the course and actually achieve a course PB in 1:13:15. I have a quick chat with Steve, knock back a couple of jelly sweets look around and Annie comes storming into the finish to break the female course record in 1:15:28! Not bad for someone who has just come back from an Achilles injury and is going through the transition to barefoot and minimalist running. Annie really has the potential to do great things in Ultra’s and I look forward to being part of her journey.
Post race…3 cakes…a hummus pitta! Yum yum.
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About Me
- Terry Conway
- Welcome to my blog all about my ultra running experiences, including reports on races and interesting training runs, views on kit and equipment as well as anything else I find of interest. I love the freedom of running, the people and places you see and meet and all the challenges that come with long distance running.
