Tag: running

QE Spring Half Marathon – race report

On By 00snookIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

It is 6.30am on Sunday 26th March and my alarm has just gone off.  Must be time for the QE Spring Half Marathon, run by Second Wind Running.

Well I say my alarm has just gone off.  This is not entirely accurate.  I have a 4 year old who gets up at somewhere between 6am and 6.30am every day, so no need for an alarm really 🙂

I was looking forward to this race.  Despite my training going nowhere near to plan due to injury and illness, I was feeling fairly fit and this hilly half marathon is a preparation run for Brighton Marathon in a few weeks time.  No need to try and rush round, just turn up, complete the race uninjured and move on.

This race had been entered due to my friends Mike and Neil both signing up and persuading me to do so.  Since then, they have both had to withdraw from the race due to injury, leaving me to it.  No real drama, as they both run WAY faster than I do so would only have seen them at the start, and then again at the end.  They would have been looking all lithe and fit and well rested as I hauled myself over the line hours after they have finished.  So really a blessing in disguise I was going on my own, as I wouldn’t have to suffer that.  🙂

Queen Elizabeth (QE) Country Park is just up the road from where I live in Portsmouth.  Nestled along the absolutely stunning South Downs Way, QE allows access to miles of mountain bike and running tracks, and is just about as nicer place as you could ever want to run.  All except for one minor point.  It is hilly.  Very hilly!

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One of the stunning views on the South Downs Way

Now I am not somebody who balks at hills.  In fact I quite enjoy a hill.  Those that are too steep for me to run up I simply walk up, meaning I get a well earned rest and can then fly down he other side of the hill like a mountain goat running away from a snow leopard.  At least that is the idea anyway.  Plus my ultra marathon that I have booked in June is along the South Downs Way, which means that any hill practice I get in now will hold me in good stead for that race.

Arriving at race HQ at around 9.15am for a 10.15am race start, I quickly registered and set about the tedious business of trying to pin my race number onto my vest.  Luckily, I had the ever cheerful Dave Ludlam to talk to.  Dave is a fellow member of Portsmouth Triathletes, and also a fellow blogger.  His blog is well worth a read if you fancy it.  You can find it here.  I always enjoy talking to Dave and we were discussing his race schedule for this year, my race schedule and various other bits and bobs as I got prepared for the race.

Soon enough the race brief was upon us and we filed over to the race start.  I had never run this race before, so didn’t know what to expect (other than hills), so the plan was to start slow and see how I got on.  This plan worked perfectly, as soon after the start Dave and others were powering up the first switch-back style hill, as I slowly trundled along towards the back.

Once we submitted the first hill we were in the woods at QE, winding through well worn paths and out away from the park.  The run was essentially either uphill, or downhill with very few flat sections.  I was concentrating on just keeping it steady.  Not worrying about the pace on my watch, just nice and steady.

After a few kilometres I caught up with Dave.  We had a brief chat on how we were getting on before getting to yet another uphill, where I slowly moved away from him.  I was feeling good at this point in the race and wanted to maintain a nice solid pace.  On we climbed through another switchback and out into the sunshine at the top of the hill.

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There are worse race carparks around!

The scenery around QE park, the Downs and the Meon Valley is simply stunning.  On a warm morning in March there is nowhere better.  Each turn presented another stunning view and I felt very privileged to be able to run in such a beautiful place.  As we continued onwards I glanced down at my GPS watch, which seemed to be stuck, saying I had only run 2.79km.  Oh well, I wasn’t planning on using it much anyway, so would just keep going.

Soon we were through the first aide station (at the 4.5 mile mark), manned by some cheerful volunteers.  I was running with my race pack on (that I will use for all my marathons this year) so had water with me.  There was no need to top up the bottle, so I just kept going.  We were running through some great single track at this point and I had settled in with a group of runners who all seemed a similar speed to me.  There was pink top lady, green jacket man and another lady with some very colourful trousers on.  We would all take turns overtaking each other, but essentially seemed locked together.  It is funny how this tends to happen in races.  I never plan to stick with certain people, it just seems to naturally occur.

As the race wound on and I was feeling good.  After 1 hour of running I had no idea how far I had gone (cause of the watch), but I felt really strong.  The sun was beating down on me, but my legs felt great, my breathing was easy and I was running well.

Onwards and onwards, uphill then down again, I continued.  At the second aide station (at the 9 mile mark) I stopped to top up my water bottle.  It was really quite hot and my water consumption rate had risen.  Luckily, I had run enough races to tell when I needed to drink more and had adapted my water intake accordingly.  I had also taken a couple of energy gels by now to keep the energy levels topped up.  These are great but sometimes give me a bit of a stomach ache.  This would prove to be the case shortly.

As I approached around 2 hours of running I started to flag.  We were out in the open.  The wind was blowing and the sun was strong.  I was running out of beans.  Hardly surprising on the amount of training I had done, but never the less it was a problem.  I decided to take my final energy gel, even through I had taken the previous one only 20 minutes before.  Usually I have to leave it at least 30-40 minutes or I am guaranteed stomach ache; however this was not a luxury I had. I needed the energy boost.  No sooner had I taken it than I got stomach cramp.  I knew this would happen, so just kept on running.  Concentrating on my breathing I got the cramp to pass, lifted my head up and got on with the race.

Shortly after this I was overtaken by a very fast runner.  He was running the full marathon distance, which was two laps of the same course I was completing one lap of.  Bearing in mind I had only been going for 2 hours, he was on for a very fast marathon time, as I couldn’t of been that far from the finish at this point.  Impressive running indeed.

Making it back into the woods I recognised where we were.  I often run the Parkrun at QE and we were at the bottom of the biggest hill that the Parkrun runs down.  Turning right to head up that hill, I knew what a beast it was.  The pink top lady from before was still with me, and she took the lead up the hill.  We both had to walk in places.  Boy was it steep.  About half way up I gritted my teeth and decided I would just run.  I knew how far we had to go to the top of th hill (about 150 metres), and knew once I was at the top there wouldn’t be much more of the course left.  Powering up the hill, I left pink top lady behind.  I was breathing heavily, but summited the hill without stopping.

Turning left, I knew I was on the final descent to the race finish.  Picking up the pace on the downhill section I felt great.  I was going to finish in less than 2hrs and 30 mins (which was my target).  Not only that, I had run a good race.  My hydration was good, my nutrition plan mostly worked and I had not got injured.
Down the final hill and across the line I was done.  2hrs and 22 minutes.  Not bad.  Most encouraging was that after the race results came out I finished 103rd out of 198 runners.  No more finishing last for me.  Perhaps I might make a go of this running thing after all.

TTFN

Snooky

 

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Happily finished wth my bunny medal

Why I run

On By 00snookIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Since deciding to take on the Ironman in 2013, I have increasingly gained a reputation as a distance endurance athlete.  Those who knew me before 2013 and how I lived my life would laugh at this.  Those who have met me after would know no different.

Never the less I often get asked why I run.  Not only run, but run long distances or challenging races.  So below are the top 5 reasons why I run.

 

  1. I run to raise money for charity.  I support Chestnut Tree House, a children’s hospice who cared for my friends daughter during her last days of fighting Neuroblastoma.  This childhood cancer took her at the tender age of just 2 years old.  Ever since I have raised money for Chestnut, who rely on fundraising just to stay open.  You can read more about Ambers story here.
  2. Running resets my brain.  There is a quote I read once, which simply states “show me a man with a problem.  Once he has run for 2 hours, he no longer has that problem.”  Running give me time to think.  To organise my thoughts and plan.  It is wonderful headspace.
  3. I feel 1000 times better when I exercise.  It took me a very long time to get fit enough to be able to just go out and run.  Not months, but years of effort to get to this point.  But now I can just run for an hour without thinking about it, I rely on that exercise and my body seems to need it.  We are, after all, Born to Run.
  4. Running outside connects you to the world. Whether you are running on pavements through a city or town, or on trails through woodland or rolling hills, running connects you to that world.  You see some amazing stuff whilst running.  Things you would never normally see.  It is a beautiful world out there when you run through it.
  5. Pushing yourself to your limits makes you realise what you really can achieve. Each time you push yourself to your limits, you realise that you really don’t have any limits.  When I started running I couldn’t even run to the end of my road.  This year I am going to run 13 marathons and two Ultra marathons.  Who knows where next year will take me.  I feel truly limitless.

 

If you are reading this thinking to yourself that you could never be a runner, or that running isn’t for you, I would strongly encourage you to think otherwise.  I genuinely was the worst runner when I started.  I got injured.  I consistently finished last in races.  But perseverance and determination has opened up the world of running to me and it really is a wonderful world.

Plus, if it was easy, there would be no satisfaction in doing it.  Right 🙂

 

 

5 things to help you cope with a DNS (Did Not Start)

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There is only one thing that I fear more than a DNS (Did Not Finish) and that is a DNS (Did Not Start), yet I am realising these fears tomorrow as I am not going to be running by first big race of the year, the Meon Valley Plod run by Portsmouth Joggers.  This is a very tough 21 mile off road race.  Hilly, muddy, just up my street.  Alas I will not be there.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have had a cold, but this cold just hasn’t gone away.  It has lingered on and on, runny nose persisting, cough persisting and despite eating healthy, sleeping plenty and doing all the things you are supposed to do I just haven’t shaken it.

I am also still struggling with a bit of ankle pain, following badly spraining my ankle at the Hellrunner in January. These two things combined have meant that since the Hellrunner on the 14th January I have only run 4 times (including Havant Park Run this morning).

Obviously this is not enough training for a 21 mile hilly off road race, so I have taken the sensible decision and pulled out.  I decided this mid-week last week, and am very glad I have done so.  As you can see from my heart rate data from this mornings Parkrun (in the image below), I am clearly still struggling with this virus.  Under normal circumstances my heart rate for a 28 minute 5km would be about 160bpm.  Today it was averaging at 180 and peaked at 188!  Heart is definitely having a bit of a struggle.  This just wouldn’t have worked over 21 miles.

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So that leaves me with the thought, how should I react to this DNS.  Well below are my top 5 ideas.

1) Re-strategise and plan for my upcoming 13 marathon challenge.  I need to re-think how I approach Brighton Marathon in 5 weeks time, as I have done nowhere near enough training and do not want to risk injury by trying to run Brighton to fast.

2) Concentrate on the positives – Despite not making it to the start line on my first big race of the year, I am 80% recovered from my ankle injury, my cold will eventually go and I have a big year of racing ahead of me and plenty to train for and look forward to.

3) Keep my eyes on the prize – This whole year is about running 13 marathons including 2 Ultra’s, so I need to keep reminding myself of that.  There is nothing to be gained by being short-sighted,

4) Cross Train – I have a turbo trainer, a weight rack in the garage, a punch bag and plenty of space for Yoga.  I should be concentrating on this and not worrying about running.  I know I can run, I just need to be fit enough to do so.

5) Sleep – Sleep is the master healer, and I do not get enough of it.  Must try harder to get to bed early and get my 8 hours in.

So that is that.  My plan on how to come back from not starting.  Let’s see how it goes shall we.

TTFN

Snooky

Training with a cold – what are my options?

On By 00snookIn Uncategorized1 Comment

So I have a cold.  I’m a bit achey.  My nose if running like mad. I am sneezing a bit.  My throat hurts.  It isn’t life threatening.  It is not “man flu”.  It’s just a cold.

“WHO CARES” I can hear you shouting at your screens before promptly closing down my blog and going back to Facebook.  Well please stick with me readers, I do have a point.

You don’t need to spend a huge amount of time on Google before you discover that there is a wealth of information out there on exercising with a cold, and nobody can really make up their mind if it is a good idea or not.  Most say “listen to your body”.  Well if I listened to my body all the time I would be lying on the sofa eating Doritos.  I’m not sure my body knows what it’s on about sometimes.

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Yum

So if I am not going to listen to my body, what am I going to do.  Listen to my head?  Well my head says that I should allow myself time to recover.  All well and good, but I do have a 21 mile cross country to run in only 13 days time (Meon Valley Plod – run by Portsmouth Joggers), so my head also says that I should be forgetting about this cold and getting my trainers on.

Of course, the flip side of putting my trainers on and getting out there is that I might take longer to recover from my cold if I go out training.  If that is the case, I am risking not getting over the cold in the pre-requisite 13 days and then having to run 21 off road, muddy, likely chilly miles with a cold.  This doesn’t sound very good either.

So what is the solution to all this?  Well really it is a simple one.  What you should do is procrastinate.  Fill up your time with other stuff (like writing your blog, doing some meditation, looking on Wiggle etc) and that way by the time you get around to running it will be too late and you won’t be able to go.

All I need to do is follow this simple method for the next 13 days straight and I will be in perfect fettle for the Meon Valley Plod.

Hurrah!

TTFN

Snooky

PS – Want to learn how to be a master procrastinator.  I absolutely love this article and it explains it a lot better than I can.  http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html

PPS – Please click below to share my blog.  I will love you forever if you do!

 

5 things I would not have known if I hadn’t gotten injured

On By 00snookIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

So it is now about 4 weeks since I got injured running the Hellrunner.  Just a badly sprained ankle.  It still hurts now, but I did manage to go out for a run at the weekend.  I thought I would just do a couple of kilometres to ease myself in and ended up running 12.  Still, I survived, and as long as I don’t try to change direction too quickly and stay on flat surfaces my ankle feels OK.

Whilst I had 4 weeks off running I thought I would concentrate on some other areas of fitness.  Below are the 5 things that I have learn’t through this period.

1. I am very bad at losing weight through diet alone

iuI have been a lot more careful about what I am eating (well at least during the week I have been) and have managed to stop myself from putting on any weight.  I haven’t gained any, but haven’t really lost any.  I eat healthily in the week and it all goes flying out of the window at the weekend.  This seems to maintain some sort of equilibrium; however I would not necessary recommend this method to anybody.  Essentially I have been beating myself up about this quite a bit.  Why can’t I just stay on course with a diet?  Why do I sabotage myself?  Why do I not care more.  Luckily this moves me onto number 2

2. I should stop beating myself up so much

By way of a regular email update I receive from the superb Darin Olien website Superlife, I was directed to this article on the website of Nate Green website, simply entitled “Why is it so hard to stay consistent at the weekend?”  It is well worth a quick read, but essentially says that it is easy to skip out on the healthy habits that you may have formed and be able to stick to during the week when you are out of routine at the weekend.  Now I am an absolute MASTER at this, but took some comfort from the article and have subsequently adopted number 3 into my life

3. I have created myself a shortlist

This is a shortlist of things that I will endeavour to do each and every day in order to keep my healthy habits in check (as per the article above).  The shortlist I have decided on is this:

  1. Get 7-8 hours sleep every night
  2. Do a minimum of 10 minutes meditation every day
  3. Eat a vegan diet, with a minimum of one whole food plant based meal per day
  4. 30 minutes exercise per day
  5. 20 minutes of stretching/yoga per day
  6. Work on your book / practice piano / updated your blog for 30 minutes per day

I should probably break these down a bit more to add a bit more context.

  1. With two children under 4 this is not always in my control, but I will be going to bed earlier at a minimum
  2. I have the Headspace App and this is easy to fit into even the busiest day.
  3. I eat Vegan 99% of the time, but it is easy to eat a fairly poor vegan diet (chips, sandwiches etc).  From now onwards I will make sure that one meal is whole food and plant based entirely.  Nothing processed.
  4. This can be either weights, running, cycling, swimming, whatever.  Just must get my heart rate up for a minimum of 30 minutes
  5. This will either be first thing in the morning or just before bed, but is essential as I do absolutely none of this now.
  6. I have wanted to write a book about my Ironman exploits ever since completing it.  I also have a piano and want to learn to play it, and should definitely be better at updating my blog.  It’s only 30 minutes after all.

4. No more watching TV

Due to being injured I had a very good excuse to just flop on the sofa and do nothing every evening in front of the TV.  I was getting really good at it too.  Often I would fall asleep on the sofa and never even make it into bed.  I was enjoying my lazy lifestyle far too much.  So I decided no more TV.  Since stopping watching it I have achieved far more every evening.  So to allow the 6 things above to happen, TV has had to get out of the way.  Do I miss it.  Not one bit!

5. I can really achieve anything if I just go after it hard enough

You would think that somebody who has completed an Ironman would already believe this, and to a large extent I do.  The difference now is that I spent time educating myself whilst I was off injured.  Looking into the amazing feats of others.  How do they manage them?  What makes them different to me?  You know what I realised?  Nothing makes them different to me.

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David Goggins

I have been hugely inspired by the stories of both David Goggins and Andrew Taylor.  Goggins is an ex Navy Seal, and is widely considered the Toughest or Fittest athlete in the World.  He held the world pull up record (over 4000 in 24 hours), ran a 100 mile running race with absolutely no training at all and has gone onto complete multiple ultra-marathons, triathlons, ultra-triathlons, bike races and arduous mountain ascents, setting new course records and regularly placing in the top five.  His entire attitude is, you only fail if you don’t want it enough.  The Rich Roll podcast with him on is absolutely worth a listen to if you fancy some inspiration from a truly remarkable person.  The best part is, he is no different from you or I.  He just wants it more!

Andrew Taylor is better known as “Spud Fit”.  A genuinely fascinating antipodean who ate only potatoes for an entire year!  He lost over 114lbs in weight, his health improved exponentially and most of all he survived with no adverse affects.  That’s right, a diet of only potatoes for an entire year.  Once again, dedication and a bit of self control and this crazy Aussie did something pretty damn amazing.

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Andrew “Spudfit” Taylor

Both of these guys have reminded me that if you want extreme results, sometimes you have to go through extreme measures.  I want to run 13 marathons in 12 months (including two ultra marathons now, not just one). To many this is pretty extreme, and perhaps it is.  But I am going to go to extreme lengths to make it happen.  I am going to train hard.  I am going to focus.  I am not going to beat myself up every day, but instead do something every day to move me closer to my goal.  I am going to endure, through pain, through injury, through doubt, through fear, through whatever this journey throws at me and I will complete my marathon journey!

Just like Goggins and Taylor, if I want it badly enough I will be able to get it.

Now it’s off to the garage to lift some weights, then yoga, then meditation then bed!

TTFN

Snooky

PS – If you enjoy my blog please scroll to the top of the left hand column and share it on social media, or even better click the “Follow” button to be automatically updated when I update the site.  It means the world to me, and the more shares the more likely I am to raise £1000’s for charity when I start my fundraising.  Thank you all.

 

Race report – Hellrunner Hell Down South

On By 00snookIn Uncategorized6 Comments

It’s 0700 hours on Saturday 14th January and my alarm has just gone off.  Must be time for the Hell Down South Hellrunner.

For the uninitiated, the Hellrunner series is either 10 or 12 miles of extreme cross country running.  Featuring the “Bog of Doom” and the “Hills of Hell”, the run markets itself as “Tougher than a Tough Mudder”.

Why oh why would anybody ever sign up to this sort of madness?  Well in my case, my friends Bushy and River and others have done this and it has always been on my list, so as soon as my friend Mark from work asked if I wanted to join in I jumped at the chance.   To coin my usual catchphrase, how hard can it be?

 

Running late

brooks-hell-runner-logoThe Hellrunner was on Longmoor Army Base, which is only about 20 minutes from my
house.  We had been warned by the race organisers that it would take a while to get into the car parking, so I left with what I thought was plenty of time.  Sadly it took a bit longer than I expected to get from the motorway into the venue.  I was in phoning Mark (who was better organised and already there) and he was reporting back that the start was delayed by 10-15 mins.  Luckily, I was not the only one who had underestimated how long it would take to get in. This meant that our wave was due to start at 10.15

Parking my car and checking the time it was 11 minutes past 10.  I had been directed to park quite some distance from the race start, so I grabbed my gear and started to run towards the start.  Over a motorway bridge then through a field I stopped for a quick wee in a portaloo and met Mark outside the bag drop just as the 11.15 wave started running.  Dumping the bag at the bag drop,  Mark shouted to me that we could still go if we were quick, so I tied my shoes a bit tighter and together we ran to the start and we were off.

Not exactly the race start I had hoped for, and I jovially commented to Mark that I was sure that Mo Farah did a bit more warming up for his races than just turn up and go for it.  I had really wanted to do a proper warm up as the trail was all off road and very hilly and I wanted to make sure that my body was ready for the challenge.  Still too late for that now.  I was off and running in my first ever Hellrunner.

 

Catching up the pack

Mark is a great runner and he set the initial pace as we set off over the uneven terrain, pocked with deep muddy puddles with jagged ice floating on the top.  Soon we caught up with the tail end of the runners from our start time and started to overtake a few.  The course was up and down steep sandy banks, and wound few beautiful heathland.  There were a few deep gullys we had to run through, jumping into the black ooze then climbing up the other side.  Despite having cold feet I was loving this sort of running.  I never get much of a chance to run true cross country like this and it was definitely up my street.

As usual the GPS on my watch let me down and started to tell me we had done a lot less distance than I knew we had run, but instinctively I knew we had covered the first mile in a good time and were both carving our way through the pack nicely.  It felt good to be overtaking other people (as usually I am the one being overtaken) and I was enjoying Mark’s company and chatting with the other runners.  Most encouragingly was I felt good. It was great to be out running my first race of the year and as this is such a huge year of running for me, even better to have it underway.

 

Twist and CRACK

Somewhere between mile 1 and 2 there was a short uphill followed by a brief winding technical section though a wooded area.  This section was fairly narrow and there were quite a few runners around still so we had to pick our way through carefully.  Turning right to follow the group my left foot went into a hole that I hadn’t seen, my ankle rolled forward and I heard and felt a double crack in my left ankle.  I immediately stopped, my ankle searing with pain.  Uttering some sort of expletive, I grabbed a tree and stood on one leg breathing heavily trying to recover from the sudden shock.  Mark had stopped next to me and was asking me how I was, encouraging me to try and put some weight on my ankle.  Gingerly I put my ankle down and it was not good.  The pain was intense as I put my weight through it and I was cursing my bad luck.  Never the less, standing around was achieving nothing.  Even if I  was going to be forced out of the race through injury there was no chance of being collected by the marshall in the middle of a wood.  We had only one choice, keep going.

Limping forward at a slow walk I was in considerable pain, but I have had twisted ankles many times playing football and knew that you could sometimes walk it off.  After a minute of walking I sped up into a very slow jog, but each step was genuine agony.  Mark turned to me and said “there is no way you are quitting.  I will carry you over the line if I have to, but we are finishing this” and I absolutely agreed with him.  There was not a single thought in my mind about stopping.  I am an Ironman for god sakes.  If I can complete one of the hardest races in the world, I can definitely run 8 or so miles on a twisted ankle.

Slowly speeding up we continued forward.  After a mile or so more Mark confessed in me that he was struggling with his left knee, so we were hardly fighting fit but we kept on going.  For me, downhills were absolute agony.  For Mark, it was the opposite.  He was OK going down but struggled up the hills.  As this course was almost 100% hills we were making slow progress, but we were still moving forwards.

 

Enjoying the run

Despite my ankle pain and Mark struggling with his knee, we were enjoying the run.  The scenery was breathtaking at times and the course so varied that you never knew what was round the corner.  Hills so steep you were on all fours to get up them, then down the other side grabbing trees and shrubs to slow your descent, the race was brilliant.  We knew we had both the Hills of Hell and the Bog of Doom to come, but to be honest soaking my ankle in a freezing cold bog seemed like a great option to me.

Soon we arrived at the first bog, which is not the Bog of Doom but might as well have been.  Entering into it, the silt was incredibly deep, the water absolutely freezing and there were sunken logs to get your feet stuck under.  Wading through it was not easy, but together Mark and I made our way through.  I thought I had lost Mark at one point as he almost submerged beneath the murky down brown water, but he recovered, I pulled him up and we went on.

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Mark just recovering and avoiding a full dunking

 

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Out of the first bog

Soon we emerged out of the first bog together and on we went.  It was very cold, and the bog had really taken it out of Mark who actually seemed out of breath for the first time in the race.  In fact, I think this is the first time I have ever seem Mark out of breath.  He really is super fit, but the bog had taken it’s toll.  Never the less, we had at least 4 miles to go, still had the Hills of Hell and the Bog of Doom and were both carrying injury, so we needed to get on with it.

 

Devil’s Disco and Hills of Hell

Jogging further on we soon saw a group of cheerleaders dressed all in white and a big tent pumping out dance music.  This was the Devil’s Disco, and as we ran through the tent and grabbed some water and some sort of energy shot I realised we were getting closer to the finish.  Following the tent came a serious downhill, which I really struggled with.  Getting to the bottom my ankle was screaming at me.  I had to take a moment to compose myself.  Surely we didn’t have that much further to go and these Hills of Hell couldn’t be that bad.

Continuing on we climbed more hills and down the other side, ran more single track and just kept on going.  Then we were finally there, the Hills of Hell.  These are essentially a group of extremely steep trails up and down the same couple of hills.  You would slip and slide down one, only to turn 180 degrees on a switchback and go straight back up the same hill on a slightly different trail.  I could tell that Mark was struggling a bit at this point, as every time we got to yet another hill he would say “not another one”.  Luckily I could sense there was an element of comedy in his voice and knew that deep down he was enjoying himself, despite how hard he was finding the race.

Due to my ankle injury slowing me down, I actually felt OK.  Actually I felt good.  I didn’t feel tired or fatigued in any way, just had a very hurty ankle.  I knew how bad my ankle was when we started down a hill and Mark said to me “bloody hell James, your ankle looks terrible”.  I hadn’t been looking at it.  All I could manage in reply was “it feels terrible too”.  We laughed and then carried on.

 

Bog of Doom and done

Cresting yet another of the Hills of Hell, we were told by the marshall that it was the last one, and all we had left was a quick downhill, the Bog of Doom and we were done.  On we ran and we could see the bog, hear the music pumping out and see the crowd.  Tentatively sliding myself into the bog, I was quickly chest deep in very cold water.  Wading through, I was overtaking people.  Joking with Mark that I had found my forte in cross country, I pushed forward.  Waving at the spectators and high fiving the marshall I felt the usual boost that you do at the end of any race.  Despite having to complete the vast majority of the course on a very dodgy ankle I had done it.

I was delighted for Mark as well, who was clearly suffering with his knee despite not complaining about it.  I knew how much he had been feeling it at the end of the race and was pleased we had made it through together.

Exiting the Bog of Doom we were done.  A quick downhill and then over the line.  It had taken us 2hrs and 30 minutes to cover the 10 miles of the course.  2hrs 30 minutes of hard graft.

blog1
Across the line and we were finished the Hellrunner Hell Down South

Collecting my bag and then limping over to Mark’s car we discussed the event and how we felt.  Remarkably I felt absolutely fine.  Other than the ankle, I felt as if I could just turn around and do the whole thing again.  Perhaps I am a bit fitter than I give myself credit for, or just so pig headed that I won’t quit.  Either way it gets results.

2017-01-14-13-00-27Arriving at Mark’s car I had a look at my ankle for the first time and was shocked to see a huge swelling on the ankle bone.  You can hopefully see this in the picture.  Having completed the race the adrenaline was dying down and my ankle was really starting to hurt.

Mark was good enough to drive me back to my car and I drove home.  Consulting with my wife, I decided to visit the hospital in the morning and see what they thought.

Diagnosis has been given that it is a sprained ankle and I should keep off it for 6 weeks. This will seriously dent my training for 2017, but I don’t really care.

I loved the Hellrunner, loved running it with Mark and will definitely be back next year.

Will keep you all updated as to how the recovery goes.

TTFN

Snooky

 

PS – If you enjoy my blog I would really appreciate a comment below.  Alternatively you can follow my blog (using the link towards the top of the left column) or to “like” this entry (using the button below).  This all helps with the Google algorithms which rank blogs, and will have a huge positive effect on my fundraising.

 

 

4 reasons why my diet is the missing link to my training.

On By 00snookIn love running, running, Uncategorized1 Comment

As any regular blog readers will know, mostly I blog about training, fundraising or write ups from the races I take part in.

Ever since I stated this endurance racing adventure there has always been an elephant in the room.  Lurking in the background has been an inescapable fact that I have chosen to ignore.  Yes you can train hard.  Yes you can train smart.  Yes you can make sure to rest well and sleep 8 hours a night, but if your diet isn’t on point then you are almost certainly letting yourself down.

1)  I am an unhealthy vegan.

vegan-policeLike most people in the Western world, I probably don’t eat the best diet.  Despite going 99% vegan last year (nobody is 100% vegan…………right???), I quickly found a way to eat a fairly unhealthy vegan diet.

Vegan cakes are easy to make.  Chips are always vegan, and so are baked beans, lots of vegetarian sausages, many pies, take away pizza (with no cheese), etc etc.  Also, almost all booze is vegan, and who doesn’t enjoy a bit of booze?

Plus, it is easy to over eat no matter what your diet is like.  Simply, if you consume more calories than you burn up each day you will gain weight.   And gain weight I did.  Over the Christmas period I managed to gain an impressive 16lbs of weight.  8kg in new money.  That’s a lot to gain in 3 weeks off work.

2) Sometimes I run like the wind………other times I just have wind!

I often suffer with stomach cramps when I run.  If I get my diet wrong before I run, or I go for a run too soon after eating I will almost always suffer from a bad stomach.  This is fairly common with runners or endurance athletes; however when I generally eat badly I feel a lot more sluggish when out exercising.  This clearly does nothing to aide my training.

3) You are what you eat

This is an old saying, but is entirely true.  How can you expect to fuel a machine to its maximum performance if you feed it crap.  If you put dodgy petrol in a car then it runs worse.  Perfectly logical.  If you feed yourself on crap food you will perform worse.  Also logical.

4) 5% of the time this works, every time.

Mo Farah celebrates winning the men's 5,000m final at the European Championships in Helsinki in JuneI cannot remember where I read the following statistic, but it has stuck in my ever since I
read it.  For every 5% of weight you lose you gain 5% in athletic performance with no additional training.  In other words, somebody who is as fit as me but weighs 5% less will be 5% faster.  This makes perfect sense.  You don’t see very many overweight people on the podium at triathlons.  Mo Farah doesn’t look like he is carrying a lot of extra baggage around.

Another way to think about it is this.  My “racing weight”, e.g. my ideal weight for maximum athletic performance is around 168lbs (calculate your own racing weight by clicking here).  This is 76kg for you Europeans. Or exactly 12 stone for us good old Brits.

I currently weigh a whopping 206lbs, 93.4kg or 14stone and 10 lbs.  In other words, I am 38lbs (17kg) overweight.

If I was lined up at the start of a marathon and somebody said to me “would you like to carry round this backpack that weighs 38lbs or not”, I think you can all guess what the answer would be.  But that is essentially what I am doing.  Imagine how much quicker I would be, how much easier it would be on my body if I can shed that unnecessary weight.

 

The moral of the story…..

So the moral of this story is, it is time to sort out my diet, and by proxy my weight.  I am determined to nail this missing link to my training.  I have never paid that close attention before, but this is going to change.  Somehow I feel this might be the most difficult part of any training I have ever done.

Wish me luck

TTFN

Snooky