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Guess who’s back……back again…

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Snooky’s back…….tell your friends.

As Eminem once rapped “I’ve created a monster”, and it appears that I may well have done the same.

The South Downs Way 100 has been moved to November 7th (due to Covid-19). I knew this some time ago and made the executive (and probably wise) decision not to race. Since then I have done barely any training what so ever.

Fast forward a few months and with 20 weeks until the new date, I have decided that I am going to do my best to train and make the start line.

My motivation for this is 2-fold

1 – My usual running buddies of Wendy, Nicky and Freestone are all going to try to make it, so I think I probably should too.

2- The charity that I fundraise for, Chestnut Tree House, has hugely struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic as so many races have been cancelled and then rely on these races for people to fundraise just to keep them open. The SDW100 is on, I have a place, can do some fundraising, so I feel that is it only right that I do so.

And thus the monster is born. Except this monster has to fit what should really be at least 1 years dedicated training into 20 weeks, shed at least 15kg during that time and then “monster” his way across 100 miles of the South Downs in November. Could it rain? Very likely. Could it be windy? Extremely likely. Will it be cold? Definitely. Will I have to run for 14 hours in the darkness during this race. Yes.

I have spent most of my life biting off more than I can chew, then chewing like crazy. If I am honest, this technique has worked fairly well. I have a feeling this time the bite may just be that little bit too big.

Is it possible to train up to 100 mile Ultra Marathon fitness in 20 weeks. We are going to find out!

TTFN

Snooky

And so it begins – incremental gains

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So, as I write this blog post it is 27 weeks until I will be lacing up my trainers and running the South Downs Way 100!

For those of who budding Carol Vorderman’s out there, you will quickly realise that this is just over half a year. This seems like a very long time. Despite this, my training plan has already begun.

As I blogged on my previous post “Why you should write your own training plan”, I have written my own training plan. Usually I would write a plan then ignore it, but this is not going to be the case this time.

The reason I know this to be the case, is that I have recently become very interested in the idea of “incremental gains”. Whilst the theory behind this is simple to understand, the ramifications are profound.

Image result for milo carrying calf
Milo and his bull

Imagine you are learning to do something, which you regularly practice, but you only get 1% better at that thing week on week. It would be logical to assume that over 27 weeks you would be 27% better at that thing, but this is not how it works. Now you are going to have to bear with me a bit here, this gets a bit mathematical, but if you read to the end I am sure it will be worth it 😉

Each 1% is compounded, meaning that rather than being 27% better, you are actually almost 30% better (trust me, the maths works out here). Where this starts to get interesting is if you improve faster than 1%. So a 2% week on week increase in fitness would mean an overall increase over 27 weeks of 67% on your overall fitness. 3% would equal a 115% increase in fitness.

So the £64,000 question is, can you realistically improve 3% on your fitness week after week after week? The answer to this is a definite no (as you will see below), but it is also not needed. 1% is good enough. If we were to break this down to something everybody could relate to, lets say your 5km time, it starts to makes sense.

If on week one I am capable of a 30 minute 5km (which in my case I am), then 1% week on week improvement would mean that at the end of 27 weeks I should be able to run 5km in 23 minutes and 10 seconds. This is a simply huge improvement, but is spread out over 27 weeks, so possibly achievable.

On the contrary, if I improved by 3% week on week, then I would be running a 13minute 55 second 5km after 27 weeks. Now I think we can all agree this is impossible. So 3% improvement not likely, but 1% possible? I am not sure, but lets carry on theorising regardless.

But I am not running 5km. I am running 100 miles, with a 30 hour cut off period. So lets look at the same numbers for a marathon

As things stand, my marathon PB is 5 hours. Improving 1% on my marathon pace week on week over 27 weeks would see me theoretically capable of a 3 hour 51 minute marathon at the end of that 27 week period. Now this is much more like it. Even a half of a percentage improvement week on week would see me cutting 40 minutes off of my marathon time over 27 weeks.

Now I would hope that the 1% improvement is achievable. Get the exercise right, stay injury free and eat clean and I should be OK. So that is my plan. Try to get 1% better week on week for the next 27 weeks. If I can hit this, I can finish 100 miles. I have no doubt.

I told you, it is all about incremental gains.

TTFN

Snooky

The little things are what makes the difference

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This blog post is a bit about sadness, a bit about happiness and a bit about running. Please bear with me, the running comes at the end, but I hope (if you do stick with me) it is worthwhile.

So then dear blog enthusiast, as I write this my life has almost completely fallen apart. Whilst I don’t want to go into the detail of why on here, suffice to say that in my desperation to keep everybody happy, do the right thing (or what I thought the right thing was) and spin a lot of plates I have spectacularly failed on all fronts. The metaphorical pot is well and truly bubbling over. The fat lady is singing.

This has lead to an inevitable slump in my mental health. For those of you who have suffered from depression, or know somebody who has, you will be all to aware that whilst you can occasionally get the “black dog” of depression under control, he is always waiting just round the corner to bite you on the arse.

Image result for black dog depression

Luckily for me, I can feel the black dog approaching these days and can do the things I need to do to keep him at a distance, to stay out of his shadow. Trying to exercise, reach out to friends, mindfulness, eat well, that sort of thing. Never the less, and despite doing all these things, I am still struggling to get out of bed on some days.

This morning was one of those days. As I lay in bed trying desperately to motivate myself to get up and go to the gym (which incidentally I did not manage to do) I received a WhatsApp message. The message was from an old running buddy, and simply said:

“Today I have realised how much of a positive influence you have had on my life. Thanks to music. Happy Friday :-)”

A very lovely message to receive, I am sure you will all agree. But it was the timing of this message that was so poingnant. The sender had no idea how tough I am finding my life right now. No idea that on this particular morning I needed a little boost. They just sent me the message because they were thinking of me, remembering a shared experience we had and the music they were listening to reminded them of that experience. It took the sender probably about 5 seconds to send that message, but it has had a MASSIVE positive impact on me.

I got the little boost I needed. I instantly felt so much better about everything. Out of bed I jumped, ready to face the day.

Image result for limp bizkit chocolate starfish and the hot dog flavored water
This is the music that reminded them of me. One of the best albums of all time!

This experience got me thinking about life and about focussing on the little things rather than the big ones. About setting goals. About striving for the best. I have been guilty, my entire life, of setting myself huge goals. Below is just a short list of some of these.

  • Complete an Ironman (when I had not done any exercise for the preceeding 15 years. None at all).
  • Be a good Dad – not happy with just being a good Dad, I must be the BEST Dad ever or I am failing.
  • 4 hour marathon target for my first marathon (failed abysmally).
  • Must be successful in career or business – I have no idea how I even measure this, but I know that even Alan Sugar levels of success will likely not be enough for me.
  • Run a 100 mile ultra marathon in sub 24 hours

There is nothing wrong with any of these goals; however I have a tendency to obsess on the big target and lose sight of the little things. To be good at running, you just need to consistely run over a period of time. That is it. Consistency is the key. Don’t skip sessions when it is raining. Stick to your training plan. Lots of little bits of effort add up to a big change in ability. I am AWFUL at doing this. Simply terrible.

To be a successful businessman you just need to do a little bit every day to drive your business or career forward. Not ignore it for months, then go bonkers for a day or two, then back to ignoring it. Small improvements or movement forward each day.

To be a good Dad, you need to do little things every day for yor kids. Even if there is not a tangible and immediate benefit to them, lots of small things add up to something very big.

To change somebodys day, even though you might not even know they need their day changing, all you have to do is send them a simple message when you are thinking of them. A small gesture, can have a huge impact.

I guess the moral of the story is that in life, in running, and in general, try not to sweat the big stuff. Take care of the little things each day and the big things will happen. Set yourself goals, but do not consider them a Sword of Damocles, hanging over your head ready to chop it off as soon as you fail.

Finally, to the person who sent me that message this morning, if you are reading this, then thank you. You have genuinely changed my day today and altered my outlook on life. Amazing how much a small thing can make a massive difference.

For the rest of you, why not try to be this person for somebody today? Why not send somebody a message when you are thinking of them? You never know, it might just make their day.

Time to turn things up a notch or three!

On By 00snookIn Uncategorized2 Comments

So this is a blog about running. But on the 12th August 2019 it is also going to become a blog about something else.

I have taken the decision to take on a secondary challenge alongside training up for the South Downs Way 100. There is a man from Belfast called Neil McTeggert that I have follwed on social media for some time. Neil runs TeamDILF, a little project designed to help guys like me shed their Dad bods and become chiseled out of stone.

I chatted with him this morning about my goal to complete the South Downs Way 100 in June 2020, but also how much I would like to change my body in other ways.

It is not just aesthetic to me. I am getting older. My birthday was at the weekend and I am 41 years old. My 41 year old body lets me down. I don’t feel as strong as I did when I was younger. I am by no means agile. My mobility is shocking. Yes I have a certain amount of pedigree in running/swimming/cycling a long way, but that is about it.

To add to this, and as I have blogged numerous times in the past, weight management has been a constant issue for me during all my endurance endeavours. I am just not very good at managing food intake, energy expenditure etc.

I am sure that Neil holding me to account will be the push I need to shred the unwanted fat, get strong in ways that running doesn’t promote, help me to make my body and my mind harder and give me a psychological boost when it comes to the endurance stuff.

So watch this space (or more specifically this one) for regular updates on how I am getting on with my 16 week body transformation. Fair warning to you all, there will likely be photos of me with my top off. It appears from Neil’s website that he seems to enjoy that sort of thing, so in for a penny in for a pound I say.

TTFN – Snooky

Why you should write your own training plan

On By 00snookIn Chestnut Tree House, training, Uncategorized2 Comments

If you are anything like me, you have probably browsed for and downloaded a few different training plans in your time.

Whether you are trying to run a fast 5km, thinking about your first half marathon, or considering a marathon or beyond, the internet is awash with articles and information about how to train.

Also, if you are anything like me, you download these plans, make a nice spreadsheet, plan all of your runs, then something happens and the plan gets derailed. In my case, I usually ditch that plan, spend ages finding a new one and then go again, only to repeat the same old thing.

Training plans that you find online also tend to be fairly generic. If you want to run faster, you include a lot of tempo and interval work into the plan. If you want to run long, you include a lot of long runs. This is perfectly logical, but does not suit everybody. Also, by the nature of generic training plans, they are geneneric. Sounds like an obvious thing to say, but if you really think about it, are any of us actually generic?

You may have a background in swimming, or cycling, or have run when you were younger but not for years. You may have never run at all, or be a seasoned runner looking for that extra edge. You may be overweight, underweight, tall, short, wide, narrow. You may be an over-pronator or an under-pronator. You may run in trainers, or perhaps running sandals, or barefoot. You may prefer trails, or like the road. You may recover fast from training, or slowly. You may want to run 2 times a week, 3 times a week, 4 times a week (you get the idea). More than likely you are a combination of these things, meaning that no two runners are alike. So why do we all follow similar training regimes? It doesn’t make sense.

  • At the 7 mile marker

I recently read a book that totally changed my thoughts on run training. Admittedly it is aimed at ultra running, but I think that the principles apply to all run training. The book (in case you are interested) is Training Essentials for Ultrarunning by Jason Koop

What is most interesting about the book is that there are no training plans included in it, for the reasons I have set out above. We are all different, so Koop gives you his opinion on how to train and then you make your own plan.

Essentially it is split into three main components. These are:
1) VO2 max training
2) Tempo training
3) Endurance training (long runs)

The logic is that you work on the thing you are worst at first, so if you are not quick (like me) you work on your VO2 max to help you run faster. This then means that when you perform your Tempo runs, you are running further at a faster pace. This then has a knock on effect on the long runs (which are slower runs by nature), as you are reaping the benefits from a higher VO2 max and you can run further at a faster pace with the same effort, due to the increase in the volume of oxygen you can process in a given time-frame.

So I built my own training plan. 3 weeks of VO2 max training (flat out hill interval work) followed by a easier week then 5 weeks of tempo work, then about 4 weeks of endurance training. Then repeat.

Now admittedly I am only a few weeks into this plan, but as you can see from my previous post, I am running better than I ever have already. I have no doubt this is down to the interval work that I have been doing, meaning that I can run further and faster on less effort, making the runs more enjoyable and making me want to train more.

The other massive benefit is that because I have written this plan myself, I feel that I am letting myself down if I do not stick with it. When I am following a plan written by somebody else, I don’t seem to have the same emotional investment in it. But I haven’t missed a single session in 3 weeks so far (despite them being very hard) and I am improving fast, so there must be something in it.

So why not give writing your own plan a try. Or (if you like), send me some details about your goals and what your current strenghts/weaknesses are and I will write one for you. Don’t worry though, I do appreciate the irony in me writing a post about you writing your own plan, then offering to write one for you.

Hope you are all enjoying the heat, and if anybody is at Queen Elizabeth Park this evening and sees a fella in a Chestnut Tree House vest running what looks like horrible hill intervals, that’s me, so stop and say hi.

TTFN – Snooky

Ever wonder why people run?……..this is why

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Just over a couple of weeks ago, whilst sitting on my sofa, I was thinking about my upcoming races this year. I am running the brilliant Ragnar Relay with 4 good friends, but this won’t require me to run more than 7-8 miles in one go. My usual level of bravado figured this will be fairly easy at any level of fitness (completely untrue) and despite the fact that I haven’t really run properly all year, I wasn’t worried. There was 12 weeks to go till the envent. Plenty of time.

Then my mind slowly turned to the next event after that, the Beachy Head Marathon. Slightly different kettle of fish this, but I have run it before, it was 16 weeks or so away and with my usual level of misguided bravado I figured it would be alright.

That brings me on very nicely to the next event, the Wendover Woods 50 (WW50). This is 50 miles, not 50km. So its an ultra. And it was (at the time) 18 weeks away. It is now 16 weeks away!

Now bearing in mind I had hardly run all year, have put on almost 10kg in weight compared to when I was running regularly, this is clearly a slightly bigger fish to fry. For some unknown reason, I thought that this course was fairly flat. I even tweeted as such. You can read the fairly worrying responses to this tweet here.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that the WW50 is hilly. Sorry did I say hilly. I should have said HILLY. Sorry did I say HILLY. I meant HILLY. Apparently, it has approximately 10,000ft of elevation gain over 50 miles. If you consider that the South Downs Way 100 (twice the distance) has approximately 12,000ft of elevation change, this should give you an idea of just how hilly the WW50 is.

Rapidly I felt my previous bravado leaching away from me. In place of this bravado was abject panic. “Is it possible to train up from virtually nothing to 50 miles in 18 weeks” I thought to myself. Well there was only one way to find out.

Jump forward two weeks to the present day, and I have two weeks of training behind me. Two gruelling, punishing weeks where my body had to learn to run again. Even 30 minutes was hard. How was I ever going to run for upwards of 15 hours? Then it all came together in one beautiful moment, and I remembered why I love running so much.

Sunday was my “long run” day, so I headed up to the South Downs just north of where I live in Portsmouth, ready for a nice gentle 70 minute run on the trails. It was evening time, about 8pm. The light was perfect when I parked my car. It was still, quiet and beautiful.

The run started in the Sustainability Centre car park near East Meon. I was straight onto the South Downs Way and immediately heading uphill. For those of you who have not run on the South Downs Way, it is almost always either uphill or downhill. As I ran up the first hill I felt OK. In fact I felt a bit better than OK, I felt good. I reached the top of the hill and remember thinking “well you couldn’t have done that two weeks ago”.

As I plodded on, down single track running trails and descending a super steep rocky path, I felt good. I was running well. No aches and pains. Not feeling like I couldn’t breathe. It felt good.

Meon Springs

Running past Meon Springs fishing and campsite, I realised that I hadn’t passed a single other person. I hadn’t even seen a car, or heard a plane in the sky. No tractors or agricultural vehicles. Nothing. I was all alone on the South Downs with just cows, sheep and goats for company. The sun was dropping in the sky, bathing the countryside in a beautiful orange glow. I raised my hands up to the sky and was thankful. Just to be able to run in such a stunning place, to be able to do this, is magical in its own rights.

Reaching the bottom of Old Winchester Hill, I turned around and headed back the way I came. It is amazing how running the opposite direction always seems shorter to me, despite the fact that I had a very steep incline to walk up and it actually took me a little bit longer to get back.

Arriving back at the car park, I posed in the classic style of the wonderful @RunningDads on twitter (who is the master of this strange open mouth pose) and my run was complete. A total of a hilly 10km in just over 70 minutes. I’ll take that any day of the week.

So that is why I love running. All alone, sun setting in one of the most beautiful places on earth I was reminded that with training, you can condition your body to enable you to enjoy a 10km run. If you run in the right places, at the right times, you get a connection to nature and the outdoors which is second to none.

Hope you are all out there enjoying your running as much as I am.

TTFN – Snooky

It’s time to Po-ta-go

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Have you heard the story about the Australian fella who only ate potatoes for a year?  Yes that is right.  Just potatoes.  Only potatoes.  For one year.

He is called Andrew Taylor and his story is an amazing one.  A chronic overeater (even though he was a vegan) he decided to cure his food addiction by eating only potatatos for a year.  He was perfectly healthy for this year, lost a shed load of weight (about 50kg) and now runs https://spudfit.com/, where he helps others do do the same thing.

Now I am not a chronic overeater, but I am prone to making very bad food choices and I am terrible at sticking to any sort of diet.  I also need to lose weight (all be it no more than about 15kg (I currently weight 95kg).  I found Andrew’s story hugely inspirational when I first heard it on the outstanding Rich Roll Podcast.

spudfit and roll
Left – Andrew “Spudfit” Taylor  Right – Rich Roll.  Two heroes of mine.

So hear is the plan Batman.  I am going to base my diet almost entirely on potatoes until I lose 15kg and get under the 80kg mark.  This is about the right weight for my height in terms of race fitness, and as I mentioned in my previous blog post It’s time to address the elephant in the room, carrying too much weight is not a good idea when running.

I am not doing pure potatoes like Andrew did.  I will still munch an occasional salad when out and about and I cannot get my hands on a potato, but if I am at home, or heaven forbid at a friends house (where I will asking for potatoes) then I am sticking with good old spuds.

If I stand any chance of completing a 100mile Ultra not only do I need to be at the best possible weight I can be, but I also need to be at that weight quick so the impact on my body is less during training.  As the miles ramp up, carrying round 15kg of extra baggage is just not an option.

So if you see me at the greengrocers with a big sack of potatoes, you know what I am up to.

TTFN

Snooky

PS – if you are interested in finding out your idea weight for running, you should check out the Racing Weight website.  A brilliant resource and well worth a look.  They have a book too 🙂

 

The blog is back

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After a two year hiatus, I have decided to start blogging again.

The short reason why I stopped, is during my challenge to complete 13 marathons in 12 months, I sustained a very bad rib injury running the Race to the King.

I couldn’t train, the challenge was over.  So I quit.  I am not proud of this, but I did.  I quit running, quit blogging, and around the same time quit living.

I was diagnosed with depression late in the summer of 2017, but really I had probably had it for some time before that.

My journey through depression has been an absolutely horrible one.  I am not ashamed to admit that I was close to suicide on more than one occasion.  If it hadn’t been for some key interventions from some close family and friends, I probably would not be writing this now.  The irony of depression is that these people probably didn’t even realise they were intervening at the time.  Just a phone call here, or a text message there would bring me back from the edge.

pill-1884775_1280I was taking anti-depressants.  Little pills that stop you feeling.  They stopped me feeling low.  They stopped me feeling high.  They stopped me feeling everything.

I have been for counselling.  I have seen a total of 3 counselors.  All were excellent and helped in their own way but none got me all the way out of my slump.  I didn’t want to exercise.  Didn’t want to take care of myself.  Didn’t want to engage with my loved ones.  Didn’t want to do anything.

I read countless books on depression.  Listened to podcasts.  Practiced mindfulness.  Tried yoga.  Nothing would stick.  For 2 years I was like this. 2 bloody years!

A few weeks ago I made a decision, which was against all medical advice, and I just quit my anti-depressants.  Cold turkey.  No weaning myself off of them.  Just stopped.  It felt like the right thing to do.  I had tried to quit them before but this time felt different. Instantly I felt better.  I started going to the gym again.  Went back to my old triathlon club (where I was welcomed with open arms despite being missing for 2 years).  I started to message my friends again.  Friends I had neglected for far too long.  Started to go out again.  Started to feel myself.  My old self.  The one who had been missing for 2 years.  Two very very dark years.

phoenix-500469_1280

Tonight, whilst sitting in a hotel room in Munich, I made the decision to start up the blog again.  Made the decision to commit to completing a 100 mile ultra marathon.  Made the decision to push my body again.  Probably further than I have ever done so before.  At the ripe old age of 40, it is time to make a comeback.  Like a phoenix from the ashes, Snooky will be reborn.

This is going to be a hard journey.  I know it is.  But I need to feel it.  Feel the pain of getting fit again.  Feel the burn of 1000’s of miles of running.  It is hard to describe, but it is like a calling.  Any of you who regularly run may well know this feeling.  For me it was lost for a very long time.  Now it is back.

I invite you all to follow me on this journey.  I will be blogging about running.  But I am also going to blog about my depression.  Blog about the things that I did and the things that I have learnt that hopefully will help others suffering from this horrible disease.  Cause it is a disease.  You can’t see it, but my God you can feel it.

So welcome to the new blog.  The new me.  Better, wiser and hopefully one day fitter than the old me.

It feels good to be back!

Snooky

PS – I am in no way advocating that anybody out there who is taking anti-depressants should do what I did and quit without consulting with their GP.  What I did was dangerous.  Please, if you are taking anti-depressants and want to stop speak to your GP.  Don’t be stupid like I was.  It could have easily gone the other way for me and been a disaster.  In fact, I quit once before and it was a disaster, so please be careful.

The end of my challenge :-(

On By 00snookIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Hello All,

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you all that my 13 marathons in 12 months challenge has been cancelled.

I successfully completed the Race to the King, but during the Ultra marathon I sustained a serious rib injury.  Over 2 months later they have still not healed properly.  I have managed one more marathon in the interim, but had to walk the vast majority of it and it took over 7 hours.

I am simply so far behind my training now that I am going to either hurt myself or get a permanent injury if I don’t withdraw.

There is no doubt in my mind that if I had not broken my ribs as badly as I did the challenge would be ongoing, but this injury meant I was unable to train.  This total lack of training has put me so far back that continuing on is dangerous.

I am devastated to have had to do this.  Thank you to everybody who sponsored me for the Race to the King.  This is a brilliant race and if anybody is considering an Ultra I would strongly recommend it.  I raised around £1500 for Chestnut Tree House, which is excellent and the money will be gratefully received and put to superb use.

This blog will not be updated for a while.  I am not sure exactly what the future holds for me in terms of endurance racing.  The realisation that I am really not very good at it has dawned hard on me, and I need some time away to heal up, strengthen up my aging body and then find my love of exercising and competing again.

Perhaps the blog will be back one day.  Who knows.  Until then.

TTFN

Snooky

It’s all becoming a bit real……..and very very scary

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So as I write this , it is 26 days until Race to the King.  26 days until I lace up my trainers, and alongside my good friend Freestone, start to run/walk/trudge/shuffle my way along 53 miles of the South Downs Way.

2017-05-20 07.28.38
Me and Freestone.  We are handsome fellas…….right?

I have been doing a fair amount of training.  Concentrating on a double run every weekend (either a shorter run followed by a long one, or the other way round) I am training my body to run on tired legs.  I have made sure to train on the South Downs as much as possible, to simulate the conditions on race day.  I have even been out running in the midday heat.

All of this is well and good, but I do seem to have developed a bit of an injury.  It was
inevitable.  I have no running pedigree.  No years of running experience to fall back on.  I have only really run any endurance type stuff for the last 4 years, and only regularly trained on long runs in the last 6 months.  The injury I have is an overuse injury of some
2017-05-07 08.46.20description.  The pain is in the area highlighted in the photo on the right.  I have consulted the good old internet doctor and think it might be a metatarsal stress fracture.  This seems the most likely option anyway.

Now the injury only hurts me once I have run for more than 2-3 hours, but consistently at around this mark it kicks in and hurts like hell. I will likely be running for around 14 hours at the Race to the King, meaning that I will have to run in pain for at least 11 hours.  This is going to be a bit tricky to say the least.

I now need to decide what to do.  I could just ignore it and keep going.  I could rest and avoid all running for a couple of weeks and see where I am.  What I really should do is go and see a physio, so I think this is what I will actually do.

Am worried that they will tell me no running, and that really I should not be doing the race.  I am doing the race regardless, so my thinking is that going to see the physio can do no harm and might actually do me a bit of good.

You never know, they might just give me a magic pill that not only sorts my foot out, but also turns me into the best ultra-runner the world has ever seen.

Stranger things have happened.

TTFN

Snooky