Mont Blanc Marathon- If you’re learning you’re improving

Since racing the London Marathon in April producing a much improved PB of 2 hour 31 mins focus turned back to some trail training preparing for take two of Mont Blanc Marathon on 26th June.  As the saying goes a change is as good as a rest, the move from the roads of Somerset to the local trails rejuvenated my motivation.

Preparation for this had two major aims lots of ascent and once a week running for in excess of 3 hours.  Other than this it was just getting out running and staying healthy.  This equated to this: 

A few notable points in this block of training:

• Recovery week post London just getting the legs moving- maybe a little fast.
• 40 Miles of Brecon Beacons Traverse - Time on feet and learning to sustain myself for longer distances.
• Race Recce Week- Sampled two major climbs along with the reserve route just in case due to the amounts of snow, lots of vertical meters over the week with two long runs.
• Taper Week- Life happened, ran when I had chance.

Throughout this period I new that I was not significantly better in any one area but had made little improvements in my endurance, climbing ability, and overall strength.  Leading into the race day I knew that it was my chance to make significant overall improvement compared to last year was the execution of a good race plan.

The plan was as follows, start off slower, eat more frequent, move up places at each time checkpoint and save the major suffering for the last climb.

In the early stages of the race I produced a slower first 10km than the previous year and was able to take on regular gels. At the base of the first major climb (Possettes) I had my first test of patients nearly loosing a bottle due to a rip in my race pack bottle holder, having happened I just altered my pack set up and continued minimising lost time.  Heading up the climb I was holding my own in the field while minimising energy expenditure.  Onto the descent I began to loose places dropping back down the field, but feeling reasonably good I backed myself to regain these with interest over the closing miles.  

On the final climb up to Flegere I was experiencing cramps in my lower legs and with an aid station at the top I gathered myself had a couple cups of flat coke and took off with some final overtakes in mind.  With a change to the route up to the finish there was a leg and lung busting climb with 30% gradient in places creating one last mental test giving me chance to defend my placing to finish 50th overall and 2nd British finisher. 

The most satisfying aspect of this race was reflecting on previous blocks and training and races to implement a much more measured plan achieving a final placing 43 higher than 2015.  Going into the race I new if I did not show significant improvement I would be disappointed but with the improvement I was most pleased with the outcome.

On a brief side note London Marathon was also a pleasing consistent 5km’s to start lost a little bit of time over the last few miles.  Placed 3rd in National Club Championships thanks to other strong Bournemouth AC performances and on a personal note currently ranked 3rd U23 nationally.

No concrete plans for the remainder of the year likely some local races and doing the training I most enjoy.

Once again thanks to family and friends for the ongoing support.

Accidental endurance : June... That turned out alright!

Accidental endurance : June... That turned out alright!: June was a big month of racing for me in terms of results and length of races.  On the first weekend of June I took on my first ultra, the D...

June... That turned out alright!

June was a big month of racing for me in terms of results and length of races.  On the first weekend of June I took on my first ultra, the Dartmoor Discovery race which is a rather hilly 32 mile race over the roads of Dartmoor.  Then the second race of the month was Mont Blanc Marathon on the last weekend of the month, which was my first mountain run.  In short the former was an overall win and the latter was an age group 2nd.

Following London I managed to get back to some consistent training steadily finding some speed and getting in some trail runs a couple times a week.  I also headed out to the Alps for a few days at the end of May to spend some time training on the race route and just generally getting use to running in the mountains.  

Dartmoor Discovery was a race that I heard lots of positives about prior to starting and very much lived up to this.  For me this was a chance to get a long run in of close to 4 hrs in with some undulations to try to build up some strength for the mountains.  Early on I let a group of 3 or so go up the road and I just tried to keep a steady pace without taking to much out of the legs.  Just over the half way point I had reeled in the leaders and was feeling alright so just tried to keep a steady pace and execute a decent long run.  Over the last couple miles or so I began to flag probaly partly due to the distance and the fact I had not taken on board any extra energy.  In the end I finished in 3'51'41 with average HR of 157bpm, but had a rest day to look forward at the athletics in Birmingham.

Mont Blanc marathon was what the previous couple months had really been about and did not disappoint.  Prior to the race I had a few days with family spending time in Chamonix town and hiking around the valley.  This time was valuable to appreciate the mountains and to sample the race atmosphere in the town.  On the Friday evening there was the vertical kilometer along with a steady stream of 80km competitors finishing in the town with the buzz of full restaurants and supportive family's waiting to see their loved ones finish.  

The marathon took place on the Sunday morning leaving town at 07'00, with over 2,000 competitors there was a frantic start which was not help by me doing the typical brit abroad trait in the start pen joining the cue without pushing through to a better starting position.  This meant I had to push harder than planned in the early stages of the race to get closer to the sort of position I had hoped to be in, moving up to 50th by the 17.2km mark.  At this point I was feeling good, taking on a steady climb of the Posettes, but then as I descended from the high point of the race I sprained my ankle forcing a tentative time descent.  I then got in some steady running struggling up the next climb as one of those low points which are inevitable in endurance racing, although carried this on with a yet another tentative descent, rapidly loosing places.  After the dark periods getting up to towards the finish I heard Manol (another Bournemouth runner), behind me looking a lot fresher than I felt pushing on to the finish.  After 5hrs 15mins of racing I eventually made it in the finish to find out I had finished 93rd, but more pleasing 2nd in the Espoir category.  Which translate to English literally as hope, which I think sums up wonderfully what it means to be a young athlete in a sport where physiological development over a number of year is key.  Within the Espoir category the other competitors were all French with a team Salomon athlete from Australia dropping out mid race.

The whole experience of being in Chamonix on a race week was awesome and coming away with a trophy for a 2nd place finish after competing in a international field  was a great experience one which I look forward doing more over the coming years.  

For the remainder of the summer I am going to just get out and enjoy some steady training doing smaller races potentially running 3 marathons in 3 months to end the year if my body is feeling good.  The thought post race was to possible to go to a GB mountain running trial in Wales in August which would be a great chance to show what southern based trail runners have to offer but with no U23 category and a slack return to training I am going to give it a miss for this year and consider gaining experience going to trials next year.  This year there will hopefully be one more trip to Chamonix in September, again staying in a hostel making it less then £200 for 5 days making it all too much of a temptation.

London Marathon: A whole lot bigger than I thought

With this year being my first go at London as a Spring marathon it was always about going to experience the atmosphere with the performance always being secondary.  Although it would have been nice to produce a PB and a result that really showed the fruits of my early training it was always going to be tough.  Finishing in 2:42:22 and 373rd was actually quite satisfying considering the weeks which had come before.  The highlight was seeing Paula Radcliffe out on the course overtaking me around the half way point, great to see arguable the best British runners of over any distance.  Of course not forgetting all the support on race day and after, thanks all.

In the weeks before London training was not going well injury hinder all hope of getting in the last few key sessions but on race day I knew I had to but that behind me, forget about it and go out and produce the best I had.  Early in the race I ran with Steve (Way) from Bournemouth which was great fun and pulled me through the early miles in a decent time (5 km splits of- 17:59, 18:02, 18:13, 18:21).  Then from around the half way point it all started kicking off (in my legs) and I began to struggle to hold anything near this pace leading to a second half which was nearly 9 minutes slower than the first, in marathon running this would normally be considered a bad race, maybe it should be, but it was fun.  In hindsight I probably put the previous few weeks training a little bit too far behind me and should have listened to my body a little bit more on the day.  Although a marathon is always going to hurt at some point and I can look forward to this being much later in future London marathons with proper build up.

Felling a long way off my best it is time for some consistent training to try and get back there.  The last couple days I have felt my legs being closer to fully fit which is a big confidence boost for up and coming races,  The next key race is Mont Blanc marathon (28th June), with a 32 mile racing (Discover Dartmoor- 6th June), being a key run in the build up to this.  For the next few weeks training will be one long trail run at weekends and one slightly quicker mid week trail run, building up to 80 mile weeks again.  Consistency is key!!!

100 miles in 5 days and the aftermath...

Well self pittying my rather sore right quad while I should have been doing a London key session I thought I would take the chance to update this...

With a week off work I thought I would take the chance to spend some time away on the coast running along the coastal path.  Looking at a map and using the online distance calculator on the South West coastal path website I thought that Exmouth to Studland would be a good distance and reasonably easy to arrange.  This led to the following days:

Day 1: Exmouth - Beer
Time: 3 hours 42 mins,Distance: 21.20 Miles (10'29 min/mile),
Ascent: 1081 m, 1 hour 43 mins
Day 2: Beer - West BayTime: 4 hours 1 mins,
Distance: 21.54 Miles (11'13 min/mile),
Ascent: 1250 m, 2 hours
Day 3: West Bay - WeymouthTime: 4 hours 2 mins,
Distance: 23.94 Miles (10'07 min/mile),
Ascent: 652 m, 1 hour 32 mins
Day 4: Weymouth - LulworthTime: 2 hours 2 mins,
Distance: 10.64 Miles (11'28 min/mile),
Ascent: 595 m, 1 hour 4 mins
Day 5: Lulworth - StudlandTime: 5 hours 3 mins,
Distance: 29.30 Miles (10'21 min/mile),
Ascent: 1570 m, 2 hours 19 mins
Total:Time: 18 hours 52 mins
Distance: 106.6 miles (Driving: Bristol to Birmingham 88 miles, Bristol to London 118 miles)
Ascent 5209 m (Sea level to the Matterhorn 4478 m, Sea level to Scafell Pike 978 m)

This being my first attempt at multiple days of big mileage I was glad to be able to take my time and run where I could run and walk where I could walk. Most enjoyable was taking running back to its most simplistic running from A to B while enjoying the journey along some dramatic coastline.  With the biggest learning being fueling myself more during and after each run.  Also getting started each day hoping my legs would start to feel better as I got started, inevitably this happened but was rather difficult sometimes.  The most pleasing part of the whole trip was getting through the miles and finishing well with a sub 5 hour marathon over undulating terrain.

Prior to this I set a new 10 mile pb of 55 mins 15 secs on a hilly road course at Lychett 10 this was off the back of some solid training for London with 4 weeks of averaging 80 mile weeks.  Originally I was unsure on targeting 2 hours 30 mins at the London Marathon in April but this has started to make it look possible with some solid training.

For now I am focusing on recovering from last weeks adventure and getting ready for a consistent 7 weeks training up in till London on 26th April.  In the meantime I have Reading Half marathon which doubles up as British Half Marathon Championships where I am looking to target a top 3 U23. However to an extent this is very much out of my control so going to keep smiling, keep the routine, keep training and race sensibly.

2015 Races

Races 2015 -

22nd March - Reading Half Marathon (British Half Marathon Championships)

?12th April - Taunton Marathon?

26th April - London Marathon

6th June - Discover Dartmoor (52km)

28th June - Mont Blanc Marathon

???

Trail marathon - Bonking in a cabbage patch

For the last 10 weeks or so I have been building up to running the marathon at the Dorset leg of the Endurance Life coastal trail running series.  This meant getting back into a decent amount of training with the additional long term arrangement of doing this alongside full time work.

On Saturday 6th December I raced my first trial marathon finishing 4th in 4'00'17 which was not quite the end of the year I was looking for but was a day for a lot of learning abut myself and racing.  Racing over marathon distance on the road controlling the demands on my body can be done with relative ease, however this was a whole lot more difficult on trail.  In the early part of the race I ran with a club team mate which was great to get the the early miles out the way, but going on to the more undulating parts of the course it became a whole different ball game.  Feeling like I was just about holding my position I trekked over the steep climbs at one point producing nearly a 14 min/mile but pushed through to about mile 20 in 2nd position and then the fun started.  Firstly having to stop to answer a call of nature, a very spectacular location but is hindsight maybe wasn't that urgent and then nearly bonking in a cabbage patch (not a funny as it sounds, running speak for feeling really trash and nearly fainting).  At this point I slowed to take on some food and water but this was probably wasn't the greatest idea as I could barely digest what I had eaten.  This then led to me slowing over the closing miles and being overtaken twice (I only found out at the finish thought it was runners in the half marathon event, although don't think I could have done much to keep up with the eventual 2nd place finisher).  I was finally overtaken on the closing 1/4 mile or so on the beach but did not realize again, this I maybe could have done something about if I was a bit more switched on.



This block of training has really been a transition from student life, to the real world which is very much inevitable but was tougher than I expected.  The main challenges I found was the amount of mental tiredness from concentration at work leading to feeling physically tired and the hospital bugs which you pick up when working.  This lead to me feeling rather chesty and pretty awful at times, but managed to keep doing some training even if it was just running the 2 miles to and home from work.

Well on to the next races with the first big one being London Marathon and then 2 months later is Mont Blanc Marathon.  The thought of the these races and the next 7 months or so makes is exciting, the variety of being in a big city marathon one week and then a few weeks later being partway up a mountain is so cool.  I am making some changes to my training firstly introducing lighter weeks routinely to try to let my body recover and fight infection avoiding the big drop in weekly mileage and missing key sessions.  Also speeding more time running in the Quantock Hills to get in some more accent and decent as well as weekly key marathon sessions on a Tuesday and a Thursday morning tempo session hopefully on the local track.

Here are some totals from this block of training:
625 miles,
72 hrs