Exe to Axe race report

Distance: 21.08 miles (advertised ~ 20.3 miles)
Terrain: coastal trail, promenade, path and road and a little beach
Ascent/descent: +4715'/-4640' (advertised +/-4000')
Time: 03:26:08
Pace: 7:04 (fastest), 16:20 (slowest), 9:48 (average)
Position: tbc

What happens when you take young children on holiday to the seaside in Britain? Correct, it rains. Well to be clearer, it p****s it down, with lots of gusting wind for good measure. Ah the stereotyped famous British beach holiday and so it was for little Eilidh's first bash at the coast.


Brian and Eilidh (strapped to chest) enjoying Sidmouth beach

We drove down to Exmouth on Friday to make a holiday weekend of the Exe to Axe race in reasonable, if slightly overcast weather. It took us 7 hours to get there (should've been 4) due to traffic jams and the insatiable appetite of our daughter for milk. We stayed on a lovely farm just outside Exmouth run by an English-Danish couple called Rose and Palle - the farm is called Quentance. Eilidh saw her first dogs and her first horses and was suitably curious.

Saturday was awful weather wise but like true Brits, even though my wife is an Aussie, we strapped on full waterproof clothing and went out to enjoy ourselves. We visited Budleigh where we stayed for 10 minutes then Sidmouth where we strolled along the promenade and visited various cafes. We then visited Beer where we tried to buy some beer from a pub called the Old Barrel or something like that but they wouldn't serve us with a child younger than 5 years old. Don't understand why so we left the town promptly thinking miserable gits.

Anyway, you're not reading this to be regailed with tales of family holidays, exciting as they may be, but tales of racing and running based derring-do. So on with it.


Arial photo showing route of race from Exmouth to Seaton

The race is one of the most southern fell races run under FRA regs and although you might not expect it, it is bloomin' hilly. There is well over 4000' of ascent and descent along the 21ish mile race route as it winds its way along, down and up the cliffs that make up the UNESCO World Heritage 'Jurassic Coast' (http://www.jurassiccoast.com/), with most of it in the second half, in a series of pretty violent climbs and drops. Serious quad and calf spasm inducing stuff.


Race elevation profile

Luckily the bad travelling, awful weather and lack of beer provision experienced on Friday and Saturday dissapated into joyous blue, sunny skies and perfect racing conditions on the Sunday. I was ready with windproof and even had gloves packed in the bum bag at Exmouth for kick off at 10am but, having sweated about a litre within the first few miles decided to strip the windproof off and tie it around my waist.


On Exmouth beach at the start with the coastal path cliffs behind

There are a number of curious features en route. The first is a huge, really ugly caravan park perched on the cliffs next to a short promontory, which happens to be occupied by a Royal Marine firing range. Not sure why you'd want to have your holiday occupied by the crack of gun fire and shouts of exasperated instructors but it is clearly popular - there are hundreds of caravans - and this time lots of cracking gunfire as we passed by.

The next are two sections where you run along seaside resort town promenades dodging bewildered looking grannies and kids. The first, Budleigh Salterton is smaller whilst the second, Sidmouth is larger and where the serious ascents and descents begin. As the elevation profile above shows these get progressively more and more steep until you really are just pumping your way down and up roughly cut muddy steps - no running possible, just grim determination and the hope your calf or quad doesn't spasm uncontrollably. There are always some fatalities you pass by en route, wincing and grabbing their legs. Mine nearly succumbed after the last serious climb out of Branscombe towards Beer.

I found out this year that I had taken a short cut accidentally last year by following people. I ran the proper route this year, again completely by accident by falling the person in front at the top of the cliffs above Beer because the actual route it very unclear. Anyway, my aim for the race was to get sub 03:20:00 based on what I thought was the course from last year. I failed to do this but ran an extra mile odd and still managed to beat my time so I'm pretty happy. There were loads of people who quite innocently took the short cut so the positions in the race, when they are released won't mean much. It would be good if the organisers could marshall the place where people go wrong as it seems to be a prolific and persistent problem due to a lack of signposting above Beer.


Final sprint along Seaton promenade

The temperature was 13C ambient but was definitelt no jacket 18C weather in the sun making the beach ending at Seaton absolutely glorious.


Enjoying the sun at Seaton apres race (course cliffs behind)

Our little daughter even got to see the sea without any rain at all! Hurrah.


Eilidh McIntosh - happy beach girl

Writing this a day later my legs definitely feel it. I can walk up and down OK but there's stiffness abounds. I'll try a wee recovery run tomorrow but am wondering whether to buy some Skins shorts to see if they help prevent post-race soreness. Marco and John from the WHWR seem to swear by them.

Achilles and beer

I decided last night just to rest my achilles until this weekend's race. The last time I had an achilles problem was due to badly fitting fell shoes in the OMM 2006 and it took a couple of months of treatment to disappear completely. Don't want that again and so, despite feeling like I am a slacker (ah the joys of a calvinist culture guilty conscience) I've opted for doing nowt.

Except having a beer when I come home from work. I work a long day with no lunch break really (pretty much the norm now for lots of people I guess) and when I get home and have finished nappy changing, bathing baby and exercising I really do like a pint. Nothing better than some tasty sausages and mash, putting your feet up and supping some joyous beery beverage.

Drinking ale is quite common amongst folk who like running over hills and through bog and two of my all time favourites are:

Fuller's London Pride - http://www.fullers.co.uk/rte.asp?id=47

Black Sheep Bitter - http://www.blacksheepbrewery.com/Beers/CaskAles/BestBitter.aspx

Mmmm beery goodness ...

And if ever I am in or near Callander in Scotland I go to the beer shop at this great pub - http://www.theladeinn.com/ They claim to stock nearly every beer from nearly every Scottish microbrewery. I have some way to go to test this claim, but aim to do so. Hic.

Preparing for the Exe to Axe

The Exe and Axe and Wuthering Hike races are two weeks apart so there's not really enough time to recover, train then taper. I've opted instead to just keep going with moderate distance runs to ensure I recover OK without stretching myself. I figure I'm as fit as I'll be for the Exe to Axe so no point pushing it too far. I am keen to do well in the race which is a good one - 4000' odd of ascent going up and down along the beautiful UNESCO world heritage 'jurassic coast' on England's southern shores.

I did it last year in 03:28:10 (10:24 mins/mile avg pace) and would like to get sub 03:20:00 (10 min/mile avg pace) if at all possible. The climbs are very very tough though - good 500' jaunts of serious incline with no chance of running at all - just hands on thighs pushing away through gasping breaths. Great!

I bashed my achilles in the Wuthering Hike at around mile 28 though - I remeber thinking b****r my achilles is sore. I've not had the physio work at it yet (boy is achilles treatment painful!) so it's been twingeing during my training runs. Not decided whether to just rest until the race on Sunday or to run a bit more or to keep up the aerobic work on my bike. Tending towards the latter.


http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/367435

Anyway, I managed a good hilly mud-fest of a run on Sunday around Aspley Heath Woods after the snowfall, a decent 8 mile road and canal path run on Monday night then an hours session in the gym tonight doing weights. The achilles twinged on Monday and again tonight. Boo.

The stats ...

Sunday
Route: Aspley Heath Woods 10 mile circuit
Distance: 10.03 miles
Terrain: muddy and sandy forest trails
Ascent/descent: +891'/-872'
Time: 01:29:08
Splits: 8:47, 9:27, 8:51, 8:45, 9:06, 9:22, 8:30, 8:32, 8:44, 8:44, 0:16

Monday
Route: Great Brickhill - Grand Union Canal circuit
Distance: 8.04 miles
Terrain: path, road and canal towpath
Ascent/descent: +242'/-221'
Time: 01:04:57
Splits: 7:54, 8:04, 8:26, 8:06, 8:09, 8:12, 7:58, 7:47, 0:16

Tuesday
2 sets 15 reps single leg press (heavy)
3 sets 15 reps single leg press (medium) w/ 2 sets 10 reps wide arm pull-ups
3 sets 15 reps single leg raise
3 sets 15 reps seated calf push w/ 2 sets 15 reps seated rows
3 sets 15 reps single leg riase w/ 1 set 10 rep dips + 1 set 15 reps tricep push downs
3 sets 15 reps seated calf raise w/ 2 sets hammer curls
Stomach and back workout

Recovery and prep week

I've just not had time to blog on separate training sessions this week (funny how having a bank holiday means you try to fit 5 days work into 4 ...) so here they are in one go.

Tuesday
Route: recovery run round the Lakes Estate perimeter
Distance: 3.14 miles
Terrain: path
Ascent/descent: +61'/-44'
Splits: 8:00, 8:08, 8:08, 1.12

Wednesday
Route: easy run with Shenley Striders
Distance: 6.87 miles
Terrain: path and road
Ascent / descent: +120' / -93'
Splits: 9:52, 9:47, 9:43, 10:10, 10:11, 10:20, 8:42

Friday
Route: tempo run round Furzton Lake
Distance: 8.01 miles
Terrain: path
Ascent / descent: not much
Splits: 8:00 (warm up), 6:52, 6:56, 6:57, 6:50, 6:54, 6:49, 10:48 (cool down)

Not a lot to say this week really. The legs were definitely tired from the exertions of the Wuthering Hike and the 3.14 mile recovery run on Tuesday, although at a decent pace for a recovery, felt hugely longer than 3.14 miles. My legs were like big logs of wood. Wednesday was a deliberately easy run but longer and the legs felt fine. We had another wee medical flare up with my wife on Thursday but it was pretty minor. Enough for us to visit the Docs, get different medicine for her and for me to miss training but it was under control pretty quickly. I ran a tempo run on Friday instead (planned for Thurs) as prep for next weeks Exe to Axe race - I managed consistent sub 7 minute miles but my body complained a bit.

Took my resting HR one morning this week and it came out at 44, which is pretty good, slower than last year when it was around 49 or 50, indicating I've got fitter or my heart is slowly deciding to pack it in. I'll opt for the first, more optimistic interpretation. Ian's resting HR is 40, which is very good indeed (see recent WHW runner blog). I think Lance Armstrong got his down to 29 or so but he is (was) pretty exceptional.

What else have I been up to? I've put an entry in for the OMM A class with Marco - we'll hear in July whether our entry has been successful (http://www.theomm.com/). For those unfamiliar with mountain marathons the OMM is one of the best known events and is essentially 2 days of self sufficient, unsupported running and orienteering in a mountain location, carrying all gear, food, acquiring water en route and getting yourself out of trouble. Sleeping on bubble wrap to minimise weight, fording rivers up to your chest and forgetting to stash your gear in a waterproof bag, that sort of thing.

Should be great fun as the race is at the end of October (to provide a good chance of dodgy weather) and will be in 'northern england' - I reckon this will mean the western (unpopulated) side of the Lakes. If so there'll be lots of serious ascent, descent and rocky, mountainous terrain to navigate around in the cloud and rain no doubt. We've already discussed wind so are well on the way to becoming fart comfortable with one another, an essential state for sharing a mountain marathon race tent, which is pretty much a 1.5 person job. I did mention to him that dried food can make me windy. Not sure he took in the full implications. ;-)

Actually, I clearly do have a few things to say this week. I've also volunteered to support Jon Steele in his 1st August Bob Graham round attempt (http://www.bobgrahamround.co.uk/). Looks like I'll be supporting on stage 3 from Dunmail Rise to Wasdale - including the lovely surrounds of Langdale and England's highest mountain. Dave Waterman is also supporting so will be a good chance to share in a guiness or two post-BGR. I wonder whether he'll be wearing anything orange ... ?

Lairig Mor and Hastings half congrats

Quick post to say congratulations to the WHWR'ers - John, Iain and Tom - who all ran well at the Lairig Mor race at the weekend. Tom particularly - sub 1:40 for a hilly 14 miler over rough trail is a good time.

And congrats to the subversive WHWR'er, Dave W, who entered Hastings half and appears to have run considerably longer. Long live you and your orange shoes!

Cheers all.

Wuthering Hike race report

Distance: 31.58 miles (advertised 32 miles)
Terrain: everything you can imagine
Ascent/descent: +4538'/-4655' (advertised +/-4400')
Time: 05:24:11
Pace: 7:31 (fastest), 16:10 (slowest), 10:15 (average)
Position: 55/259

My first ultra race of the season was the Wuthering Hike, held in 'Bronte' country across the moors from Haworth in Yorkshire on Saturday 15th March. It was great fun although the terrain was much more varied than I'd thought - everything from hard rocky trail through boggy trail to road. Debbie M-C is right in her blog about the race that choosing the right trainer for this kind of race ain't easy. Glad to see that the race was an effective christening for her far too new and clean looking trail shoes. Bog glorious bog ... nothing quite like it ... tra la la la la ...


Map of route with start at top right in Haworth

I had travelled up on the Friday with my wife, Kirstin, and our daughter Eilidh to stay over in a self-catering cottage to make a weekend of the race - combining family tourism with running. It got even more family oriented with my mum and dad travelling down from Glasgow to witness the strange and sweaty world of ultra running at the finishing line. Actually they only came down with the bribe of seeing their grand-daughter. I'm pretty much irrelevant now ;-)

Marco and Debbie were sleeping in bunkbeds in the local youth hostel but popped up to say hello on Friday night. It was great to finally meet these two prolific bloggers and WHWR'ers in person - my wife calls them web friends and probably had a suspicion I was just making them up. But no, they actually exist! And they are nice!

On race day I met up with Colm McCoy, an acquaintance from some races last year (we ran most of the HP40 together), and also met up with WHWR'ers Phil and Hugh (nice to meet you both!). My wife was dead surprised when at the finish line Hugh enquired after her health. Dead nice - Hugh she much appreciated the concern and I think will now read my blogs to see what I'm saying about her. :-)


Marco and me before the race (photo from Debs - thanks)

The race began in reasonable overcast weather up the steeply cobbled main street of Haworth before winding out of town onto the moor above Withins Farm. I ran with Marco for a bit until he peeled away, then ran with Hugh for a bit, then just behind Kate Jenkins and her dog then onto a succession of various folk - loads of whom had either just completed a Bob Graham or were doing one this year. I reckon I'll try for my BG next year. The start of the race was suuuper humid and had everyone stripping off layers to prevent sweaty dehydration. By mile 13 though the weather had begun to turn and as I completed the main moorland section and turned onto the first main road section the wind began to blow and rain began to fall. Blood draining from fingers and ears I had to stop to put on buff and windshirt. A few folk caught me up but this eventually turned out for the good as the southern reaches of the course had some pretty tricky navigation through towns.

The highest point of the course was the 121' Stoodley Pike monument (below) above Todmorden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoodley_Pike), a good couple of hundred metre climb up. Not much of a view unfortunately - just lots of cloud. Boo!


Stoodley Pike

After a boggy descent off the Pike the last 12 miles had a pretty seriously quad destroying road descent into Hebden Bridge then back up again - a few hundred metres down then a few hundred back up. Good opportunity for eating and drinking on the ups though. My calves felt like they might spasm a few times en route but that's to be expected as this is the longest I've run in one go so far this race, and also the most ascent. I find the first few long, steep up and down races always beat my calves up.

I managed to stave off some eager runners behind me in the last 3 miles and even take over about 5 or 6 runners in the last 1-2 miles. I probably could have run the whole thing a little faster but I'm happy with my performance and like most of these events, half the reason for doing them is the craic en route, the other half being the countryside and the post race beers!


The marvellous post-race welcoming committee of the McIntosh ladies!

On with the Exe To Axe in a few weeks time (20 miles, 4000' ascent) then the Highland Fling. Hoorah, ultra season has begun!


Brian with fixed exhausted smile at finish

I just couldn't resist ...

Distance: 5.99 miles
Terrain: forest trail
Ascent/descent: +460'/-460'
Time: 00:45:51
Avg. pace: 7:39

Couldn't resist what? Running on a sore foot that's what, and sitting here writing this blog with a good sized glass of Warre's port in hand. Dave Waterman you are most definitely right - port is a great drink.

Anyhoo, I've not done as much mileage as I wanted this week due to my having bruised the ball of my left foot. But my desire to run got the better of me as I wanted to squeeze in a few more miles before the Wuthering Hike this weekend. I was a bit aware of my foot whilst running but the trainers I wear are pretty well cushioned so it wasn't bad. Shouldn't present a problem for the race which I'm loking forward to.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/325788

Anyhoo, the run was around Stockgrove country park perimter - my shorter, less hilly standard off road training route near MK. It was the first time I'd run it this year and I really rather enjoyed myself despite the rain and the fact it took me bloomin ages to get there. There is a level crossing en route from work and they lower the barriers a good 5 minutes before any train arrives. Very frustrating indeed!

Bashed ball of foot

I've managed to bruise the ball of my left foot. I can walk fine and also run but haven't trained for the last two nights to avoid making it any worse before the Wuthering Hike at the weekend. This is a bit frustrating as I'd wanted to up my mileage this week but c'est la vie. I've turned it into a good excuse for a mid week glass of wine or two.

Storms, a 12 hour working day, an easy pace run and a sore foot

Distance: 5.68 miles
Terrain: path
Ascent/descent: +92'/-61'
Time: 00:45:16
Avg. pace: 7:58

Our daughter is getting up earlier and earlier as it gets lighter and lighter towards summer. I can see sleep rapidly disappearing unless we start going to bed at 20:00. She was up just before me yesterday at 6am so I didn't need my clock alarm - just the pain of 'waahing' then the joy of seeing a little smiley face peering up at me from insider her cot bed.

Anyhoo I braved the storms which were supposed to lash southern England yesterday and headed out at 06:45 to drive to Bradford for a meeting (3 hours drive at good pace). The rain was pretty bad for a little then it improved and even became sunny when I hit Yorkshire. 'Gods own country' one of the Yorkshiremen I met said wisely and with a knowing look.

Back down the M1 in increasingly torrential rain saw me back in the house at 19:15 full of the litres of coffee I'd been drinking to stay awake on the motorway so I eagerly went out for an easyish pace shortish run which went pretty well. The rain even stopped which was nice of it.

I've got a sore foot though - must have bashed it through my fell shoes running around the woods at the weekend. I'll probably rest it tonight and have one last run tomorrow evening in prep for the Wuthering at the weekend. Must remember to plot the route for the race onto a map!

Noodling around Aspley Heath woods

Distance: 13.77 miles
Terrain: forest trails
Ascent/descent: +1159'/-1133'
Time: 02:00:05
Avg. pace: 8:43

Got the Wuthering Hike ultra race next weekend (32 miles, 4400' ascent -
http://www.kcac.co.uk/) so decided not to do a long run this weekend. Instead opted for a few glasses of wine and port last night (the subversive blog of Dave Waterman is clearly having an influence) and a mid distance run around the nearby hilly woods of Aspley Heath. There are loads of tracks around this wood with sandy soils at the top and a lovely clay mud-fest down the bottom of the hills. Great for noodling around as the spaghetti route map below shows.



There aren't any huge hills (max probably 40-50 metres vertical) but there are a lot of them so you can get a decent hill workout (1159' ascent ain't bad for living in Milton Keynes). As the light improves I tend to swap from running on roads to almost exclusively running around these woods and some others nearby. I enjoy this more and I like to make sure I am able to run up and down without slowing too much.

Looking forward to meeting acquaintances from the Montrail ultra races last year (Colm) and meeting up with fellow WHWR'ers for the first time (Marco, Debbie, Davie and Phil) at Wuthering. Should be a good race with good scenery and the possibility of a pint or two afterwards.

Thursday physio and gym strength sessions

You wouldn't believe how much poo had shot up and out the back of my baby daughter's nappy this morning. We didn't have to cut her out of her clothes as we have done, so it wasn't award winning but by golly it was certainly impressive. But I digress away from my exercise oriented ramblings from the week gone past ...

My persistent right ham / glute problem is still niggling away - I can feel tightness when I stretch in certain angles and after runs - so I was pleased when I saw my physio / sports therapist on Thursday and it was a lot better under a good elbow and knuckle pummelling. There was no tightness or pain except at the extreme ends of the stretches he does on me. It looks like I have a weaker right glute which means it has been relatively more stressed as a consequence of running and has been tightening up more, recovering less, becoming more stressed and so on. Not critically so but in longer races (>35 miles) my right leg stiffens up and I think it's because of my having a weaker right glute.

I've been doing strengthening exercises (lying on my back on the floor, heels on bed then raising my body up to a 45 degree angle then back) and Simon, the therapist, has recommended I do 50% more stretching on the right side to alleviate additional tightness. The strengthening appears to be paying dividends so let's hope with the additional stretching I can say goodbye to the dodginess in my right bum cheek muscle.



This might look like a gratuitous lady in tight clothes exercising photo but it's relevant - honest. Read on ...

I left it a few hours after seeing Simon before I returned to the gym after work to do my once fortnightly strength session. I'm using single leg seated leg presses - the exercise the lady in the photo above is doing but with one leg rather than two to mimic running muscle movement better - to strengthen the glute / ham and they are definitely getting easier. I do 2 sets of 15 reps with 30 seconds breather in between then 3 sets of 15 with a 2 sets of wide arm pull-ups in between (continuous - no break). Not sure of the weight as the machine has its own units which are a bit like pounds but not quite.

Been toying with the idea of a bikini separates set just like the lady in the photo but have decided to stay with the more conservative shorts and t-shirt, at least until the weather heats up a bit.
;-)

Easy runs on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings

Tuesday:

Distance: 5.69 miles

Terrain: paths

Ascent/descent: +97'/-71'

Time: 00:46:50

Avg. pace: 8:14

Almost couldn't be bothered with this run. Was tired after another 9 hour stint in the office, then overjoyed seeing our little daughter Eilidh (I do miss her during the day) then tired again. Almost gave up but not quite. A little voice kicked me into action and out the door.

Instead of the pitch dark 6 mile canal run I decided to run around our estate and up to the local Tesco then back in a loop to gain the benefits of street lighting. Not that it did me much good as I went over on my ankle about a mile in and had to stop for a few minutes going gaaahhh and hobbling.

Having suitably recovered semi frozen light rain started so I ran in earnest, trying to keep around my runner world recommended easy pace for sub 1:30 half marathoners - yes that's me now ;-) of 8:07 mins/mile. A few cars parped at me on the way round but other than that the remainder of the run was uneventful. My legs felt fine after the half at the weekend which was good.

Wednesday:

Distance: 6.65 miles
Terrain: paths
Ascent/descent: +186'/-160'
Time: 01:05:18

Avg. pace: 9:49

This turned out to be a very easy run with the club which is fine - I'm happy getting some distance in my legs at a slow pace and chatting along the route. One of the club members has just returned from New Zealand where she was holidaying for a few weeks so heard all about that. Another few cars parped at us, or perhaps me. I wasn't wearing anything garish but that's two nights of parping in a row. Something is going on ...

Nike Milton Keynes Half Marathon race report

Distance: 13.1 miles
Terrain: paths
Ascent/descent: 51'/81'
Time: 01:29:06 (previous PB 01:31:42)
Mile splits: 6:28, 6:46, 6:44, 6:45, 6:51, 6:43, 6:47, 6:49, 6:57, 6:49, 6:53, 6:48, 6:31
Position: 132/2091

I managed to stay off the already opened bottle of Italian red and got a reasonable amount of sleep before the MK 1/2 on Sunday so things started well. I met a few other runners from the club who were also aiming to run sub 1:30 and we made our way towards the front of the pack - but not too far forward. After five minutes of standing around, surrounded by the smell of vaseline (mmm nice) we were off.

I had set up the virtual training partner on my garmin 205 to run the race at 6:50 min/mile pace - i.e. to get in by 1:29:30 so that I had a margin of error if things went wonky towards the end.

About 1/2 a mile in some guy in a red t-shirt elbowed and bashed his way through between myself and Mark, another runner from the club. Totally unnecessary conduct at all but particularly that early on. He might have saved oh a second by pushing through us on a corner. Anyhoo I clocked him as he looked like he was puffing already and thought you're going to struggle later.

Sure enough he did. Mark and I passed him at mile 7 and he clearly didn't like it one bit. Puffing a little louder, snorting and spitting loudly he passed us. Mark and I kept running at the same consistent pace knowing the red top runner would blow up. And sure enough he did again. We past him without altering pace and just kept going. You could hear him snorting and puffing behind us, unable to speed up. He didn't catch us again and we soon had some distance between him and us.

We kept the same pace up until the cross over point on the figure of eight(ish) course (Woughton on the Green - pronounced woofton on the green rather comically) when Mark began to slow. I kept up the pace and gradually peeled away eventually catching up with the fast short distance runner in our club - Ryan James. When I hit the last mile I sped up and kept speeding up with a wee sprint finish at the end to take a few extra positions. I came in 3 seconds faster than Ryan - a first!

How pleased am I? Very. Several beers were consumed afterwards, partly because I had daftly not actually arranged to meet my wife at any particular place so it took us over an hour to find each other. I was absolutely frozen and was beginning to have difficulty moving my fingers - much ale required, for purely medicinal purposes of course.

Did it!

The official times aren't out yet and I'm uber busy this morning so I'll blog more fully later, but I managed sub 1:30 in the MK half marathon yesterday. Yes, not quite as big an achievement as the WHWR but it's the longest I have run at sub 7 min pace by a long shot.

My Garmin said I took 01:28:26 but I think it thought I had run 13.1 miles ~500 feet short of the actual finish so my time will probably be a little slower than that.

Woohoo!

Tempo run round Furzton Lake

Route: Furzton Lake circuit
Distance: 8 miles
Terrain: path
Ascent: ~100'
Total time: 00:59:16
Garmin splits: 8:05 (warm-up), 6:47, 6:53, 6:50, 6:54, 6:54, 6:51, 9:57 (cool-down)

Did my last training run before the half at the weekend round one of MK's many lakes yesterday. It was bloomin' windy but my challenge was to run consistently at sub 7 min/mile pace for the 6 tempo pace miles I run during these runs, and as close to my target pace for Sunday of 6:50 min/mile. Prior to the run I'd never managed to sustain this kind of pace so woohoo was I very pleased to see the split times.


http://www.mkparks.co.uk/parks-trust/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=33098

I felt very strong for the first few tempo pace miles but found miles 4 and 5 pretty difficult then mile 6 easier. This probably indicates the difficulty was more psychological than anything - you know that kind of groan I've still got half-way to go kind of thought that can sometimes creep in and slow you down.

So I'm feeling pretty gee'd up for the half and think I'm in with a reasonable shot at sub 1:30 (touch wood). Weather should be OK - forecast for 10C max daytime temp, 16 mph winds and some sunshine. My biggest challenge will not be finishing off the bottle of italian red that I started last night after the run.

More info on the MK half can be found here if anyone fancies a last minute entry:
http://www.mkhalf.co.uk/